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 4:44pm
According to My Perception
There Is No Such Thing
as an “illness”
Schizophrenia
The Schizophrenia Society is barking
up the wrong tree —
when My Brother received
His “diagnosis” at 21
that was the end of His Free Thinking
His Creative Mind Had Gone As Far
as society would let It —
at My Insistence
that My Brother didn’t “have” schizophrenia
My Father Francy declared:
“Well, Howard certainly has Something“
Yes, He Had A Creative Human Mind Influenced
By His Unique Perception
The West Desk Window 11:00am
The New Floors Are Down
without The Moulding Yet —
Hunter’s Library Is Finished
without Books
Wing Chair
& Grand Father’s Desk
I Am Frozen
In My Writing —
I recall One Social Worker
ten years ago
Make The Pronouncement
that To Stay Clean
Some People Keep Busy
or was that
To Stay Busy
Some People Clean?
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?
March 22, 2011 7:35am The Lobby of The Quality Inn, Halifax Airport
I have never seen Two Women
— I thought one of Them was a Small Man
at first —
I’ve never seen Two Women
embrace like Lovers —
They obviously were Lovers —
They obviously Love Each Other
more than anyone else on the planet
–
*WHB just uttered this phrase and I used it
poem originally titled Lesbian Embrace
The Hawk Kitchen 9:37am
The Sun Is Blinding Me
With Silver
Off The Ocean
A Broad Swath
Taking In Fishing Boats
While I Drink My Coffee
The Hawk Kitchen 3:15pm
Today I Made Cookies
— it doesn’t matter what kind —
— it doesn’t matter I had to pound
the brown sugar into submission —
— it doesn’t matter They came out with arms & legs —
I Made Cookies
For The First Time
Since Making Hermit Cookies With My Mother
On McNutt Island
over 25 years ago
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:14pm
Oh Bug I Saw You Again
Against My Beautiful Sunset
Were You Following Me?
Did You Know I’d Been Writing
& Stopped Only To Look?
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:10pm
The Banking World Today
is being taken over
by Big Women & The Small Men Who Love Them —
The Men of Stature
are being pushed out
by Bossy Females
& Their Nugget-headed Partners —
The Men of Stature
try to find pens
to write customers’ notes
on the backs of business cards
while the pretty-faced sized 12 & 14
Women In Charge
explain to Their Nodding Female Customers
There’s A New System
of labelling a check that skips the scanner
as an apparently arbitrary #906
The Hawk Kitchen 11:15am
My House Is Someone
I Have To Hold —
I Put My Arms Around Her
& Hug Her Tight —
She Is Someone
I Care About
I Care Deeply
For My Beautiful Home
& She Glows With Pleasure
Joanna Gilman Hyde 