The Hawk Family Room 12:45pm
In My Little White Gym Suit
Out On The Most Visible Rooftop
In The Whole Wide World
I Laid Out My Spiral Of Colour
For Humanity
& Let My Hair Down
Dressed In See-thru Black
For The Signing Of A Lifetime
The Tomato-coloured Couch 9:21pm
I wonder if I can wring out
a poem about A Sky
I didn’t see
Oh — I saw The Front of It
with Its opulent Gold
hiding the sun —
but the back of It went uninspected
& only later to be imagined
with Its pale pinks, lavender
& clouds of thinning Silver
The Hawk Corner Room 4:33pm
My Daughter, You Are Spectacular
the way I dreamt You up
to be capable of anything
with the nerve & the looks
to go with Your Infinite Abilities
You Can Do Anything
as I imagined when I saw You
in April of 1993
when I wanted A Baby Girl
A Beautiful Daughter —
not even as a compliment to My Son —
A Daughter to stand on Her Own
ready to Wow The World
now at eighteen
with Your tears of disproportion
about Your Idealized Body
Your Perfectly White Smile
and All Your Talents —
shall I list A Few?
After All, I Am Your Mother
& I Will Tell The World:
She Can Sing, Write, Act
Ride A Horse, Sail (Racing)
Bake, Cook, Organize
Play The Piano, Guitar, Saxophone —
She Can Make Money
& Raise It —
She Can Travel Solo
& Paint —
I Am Her Mother
I Made Her
And I Will Not Apologise
for Any of Eliza
The Hawk Dining Room 1:30pm
When I happen to see A Single Wave
breaking outside My Dining Room Window
can It possibly know
The Impact is has upon Me
even for The Day?
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:00pm
As I open My iridescent purple journal
printed with jewels
I have come to this place
where I am happy, fulfilled, & satisfied
despite the contradictory phraseology
pronounced severely over ten years ago
by My Psychiatrist (one of fourteen)
when I was insisting
I was The Second Coming of Christ:
“Joanna, You have so much going for You —
You’re intelligent, talented, beautiful
& This Idea is Wrecking Your Life.”
Then, less than two weeks later
from My Doctor Who became My Second Husband:
“–Joanna, You’re intelligent, talented, beautiful
You have so much going for You
I don’t see why you cling to This Idea –”
but cling to It I did
for twenty years now
& look where It has gotten Me
The Hawk Window Seat 10:00am
This morning I told The Carpenters
“I have a Sleep Disorder — that’s why
I’m always in My Bathrobe –”
It’s true, It’s not a lie
or an exaggeration
I have to get My Eight Hours
uninterrupted
or I’m
shot
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:11am
I want to go to sleep
with the wind
up in My Turret
at the end of twenty years —
I want to sleep to seventy
& wake up to the noon
of My Old Age
no longer marred
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:15pm
America is famous for
Its Movie Stars
Its Giant Meals
Its Wide Open Pages
& It’s Famous For Me
though I have displaced My Self
To An Even Grander Space —
I Am In The New Frontier
of Canada
where endless gallons of water
are pure
where storms melt quickly
where trees get re-forested
& My Children Make Their Lives
The Hawk Family Room 5:30pm
How Many Old Women
live in houses with ailing men
& have to check the blankets
To See If They’re Still Moving?
Joanna Gilman Hyde 