The Tomato-coloured Couch 2:00pm
I have painted
giant canvases
spread My Self across
the geography of Canada
written volumes of poetry
married twice
to capable men
carried My 2.4 Children
I live now in a house
of My Own Choosing
I am The Artist In Residence
in painted-on jeans
with tea steeping
in My Kitchen
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:55pm
Who gave Me This Life
where I can write
poetry all day
& look out the windows —
Who gave Me This Place
filled with birds
& house dust
lint balls I don’t have
to examine to see
They’re nothing more
than Galaxies —
Who gave Me This Start
out of the ebb
of hospitalizations
straddled between
two husbands, a dead mother
& The Love Of A Puny Man
I somehow see
as Heroic?
The Tomato-coloured Recliner 4:30pm
Dear Bill N Lacy:
–
You know why I handed you all those pathetic love letters while I was a student at Cooper Union and you were President? I was youthfully in lust with you, no matter what the letters said, and you were correct never to have replied.
–
After I graduated, I gave you hand-knitted socks (not knitted by me) with a note for cold feet, and months later you said, “I still have those socks –”
–
I said, “Now you don’t need them –”
–
“Why?” you suddenly asked, and I sang out, “Because Now It’s Spring!”
–
(I was about to ask my children’s father to marry me.)
–
Two husbands later I am keeping up my record — this time for over twenty years — and the object of my attentions is a small leprechaun from Scotland with whom (I’ve told myself) I would travel to outer space.
–
I hope this letter finds you well.
–
Yours truly,
–
Joanna
January 30th The Hawk TV Room 4:30pm
The Space between My Ex Husband’s favourite shed
& a distant house
lays out the edge of Sky meeting Cape
with grey fuzziness of flurries
from a low lying bank of cloud
soaking into gold
against the dark swath
of dimming shore line
December 8, 2013 The Hawk West Desk Window 10:30pm
My First Summer With My First Husband
We Built a 10′ x 15′ Post-and-Beam House
The Thoreau House
On McNutt Island
Our First Night
We Shone an Oil Lamp
From Its Southern Window
and Went Outside To Look
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:00pm
He tagged Me a “Seer”
& leapt upon Me
when I aspired toward God —
He made Me fall in love
lasting through two decades
through two husbands
both of whom
cannot understand
The Tomato-coloured Couch 11:30am
I met a Nice Young Man
with a husk in His Voice
on the pedestrian walk-up
to The Yarmouth — Portland Ferry
New Year’s Eve 1985
–
I had been dumped on the highway
by My Arguing Mother
and had to get a ride to New York
–
Peter Lynn Haeghaert was His Name
and He had been visiting His Father for Christmas
After discovering We were both visiting parents
and We were both artists
He agreed to drive Me into New York City even though
He lived on the Eastern End of Long Island
We caught the tail end of a Holiday Inn Party
and shared a room and slept in separate beds
–
Not only was Peter an artist — He was available
In January I invited Him to an ice cream party
and He drove the fifty miles into The City
and took Me out to dinner
In February He sent Me a home-made Valentine
–
I didn’t see Peter again until May
when I went out to Sag Harbour
armed with Two Friends
Who liked His Blond Apartment
and the $50.00 picnic He bought for Us
which We enjoyed on a beach
in the company of a topless Irish girl
On the way back to NYC, one of My Friends
suggested I ask Peter His Birthday
and when It was discovered to be June 22
plans were swiftly made
to visit again, this time picking strawberries
& drinking champagne
–
Our last official date, numbering Four
Peter chartered two tickets
aboard a sail boat for The Statue of Liberty Centennial
with it’s 4th of July fanfare of food and fireworks
–
Peter came into New York City one last time
before we planned to go to Nova Scotia together
but He didn’t stay as long as I would have liked
& I deliberately slept with someone else
–
August in Nova Scotia
My Mother cornered Peter on Her Island Bed
with coffee in the morning
and asked Peter what His Intentions were:
Peter looked at Me and smiled
and said
“I would like to marry Joanna
and live in Nova Scotia”
The Hawk West Desk Window 7:12pm
I painted once
a watercolour sunset
& wrote on the back
“This could be a cover
for The New Yorker”
I gave it to My First Husband
Who put it in His Parents’ attic
Yet tonight I saw My Painting
in real life
out My West Desk Window
in the sky beyond The Cape
edged below by the silhouetted dunes
bathed above by the astonishing pink
I had tried to capture
Joanna Gilman Hyde 