I once stood before a window screened
with hardware cloth
in an institution
of not My Choosing
–
from an upper storey
I stood there as if
before a microphone
I called out
to imaginary Children below
to save Them from the water’s edge
to save The Gulls from extinction
What is The Necessity of an “Accident?”
–
If That Asteroid
hadn’t wiped out The Dinosaurs
65 million years ago
would Humanity
as We Know It
be crawling The Earth
Today?
–
Could this Progression happen Elsewhere?
The Hawk Portico 5:24pm
The Waves are brusque tonight
& the sky is grey
I’m on My Second Beer
after a day of recovering from “My Spell”
in-which I lost My Decisiveness
& other people had to plan for Me
I am not altogether comfortable in These States
luckily They don’t happen often
but They can & do
in the unlikeliest of places
like Sobey’s
or some other zoo
–
I freeze up
not knowing what to think
or My Thinking’s Hung
temporarily shut down —
the only fortification I respond to
is the Kindness of Others
& I have always been met with Kindness
Cami finally has on Her Collar
with A Bell
I drink My Morning Coffee
with Bird Hunting Gunfire
off The Cape
The Hawk Living Room 2:26pm
Why try to rectify
the capture of another Bird
by Our collarless cat
The Huntress?
This one didn’t die
It was merely shocked
but in My upset
I saw what I had left:
the embodiment of My Depression
like a terrible wound
before I found happiness
in a healing World
of My Own
The Hawk Red Deck Chair 12:15pm
Oh My God! — That’s My Mother
Telling Me To Write This Poem
— It’s The Chickadees
flitting around The Scraggly Apple
telling Me to write down
what I did one Christmas
in Cooper Union —
I asked My Unmarried Economics Teacher
to be a Christmas Present
for My Mother
& He said Yes!
so I wrote Mom a note
for Christmas Morning
that a Man was coming to visit
He came to Christmas Dinner
in Valley Cottage
— My Grandfather was there too —
now Pappy, The Teacher, My Mother, My Brother
are all dead
but The Chickadee-dee-dees
are alive
& chirping
The Hawk Deck 8:50am
I hear the distant rumble of surf
while waiting for coffee to steep
The Sun Is Out Full
We’re Awake From Our Sleep
–
The Hawk Kitchen 10:47am
I drink in The Water
from The Well @ The Hawk
& think of My Present
emerging from My Past
into The Future
of Everyone
The Hawk Kitchen 7:15pm
She was a beautiful bird —
I was lucky to be standing there
on The Deck
She landed near Me
in The Scraggly Apple
dove-like
with greyish wings
& peachy breast
Our Eyes Met
Her Friends Came
& took Her away
Joanna Gilman Hyde 