The Hawk Queen Bed 9:11pm
I am going to paint
The Shower Of Lights
Yes — That Creepy Shower
which befell Me
on that famous date —
no — not October 22nd, 1993
BEFORE THAT — March 31st, 1993
I am going to do It
Justice
I am going to order
a 10-foot-long x 5-foot-wide
piece of canvas from Halifax
to be shipped — yes
I will be waiting for art supplies
again, but this time, this time
I will be ready
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:00pm
On This Day in 1991
I was told My Mother wouldn’t live
through the spring
I vowed to My Self
I would not feel the pain
of Her Loss
I kept My Vow
The Hawk Outpost 9:18am
The Clouds are the softest
linear clouds
over a puff of fog
The Sun
is behind it all,
glowing Silver
and dripping on —
Oh here come
The Silver Clouds
and now The Fog
has moved in
and caught
The Drops
of Sky
The Hawk Deck 10:50am
Since March 31, 1993
I have been in a perpetual state
of Illumination
broken only by the depression
yet even then I retained the memory
of The Shower Of Silver Lights
which follow Me religiously
as I follow Them
to where I am Today
sitting in My Red Deck Chair
in the calm of early Autumn
under The Halo
of Our Existence
shining through a murky sky
The Hawk Outpost 8:40am
The Brilliant Sheen
Upon The Water
Fills My Heart & Eyes
I Love It So
It Guides My Way
I Will Sing Of It
Until I Die
The Hawk Outpost 8:35am
The thinnest of Silver Streaks
move over The Water View
from My Kitchen Outpost
The Cloud Cover
lets Them in
along The Horizon
and out to sea
with inward pools of Light
closer to Me
Barrington Passage 1:16pm
I’ve walked across
My First Fall Leaves
upside down, the leaves
not Me
Oh — not Me — I have
all the tools at My Reach
for The Greatest, Grandest
entry of All —
I have The Seasons
set before Me:
beginning with Autumn
when I laid out My Canvas
on Michael Jackson’s birthday
when I signed My Name on October 10th
when I moved to Nova Scotia
and had My 2.4 Children —
Oh I was happy
until My Mother Died
but then, even then
I had the shock of newness
in The Shower Of Lights
to ponder, to confound everyone
around Me
to culminate in October
the month of My Baby Girl
to release My Self
inside the reassuring caress
of The Littlest Man
to Whom I have linked My Self
in My Mind
for every last season of Fall
The Hawk Deck 7:47pm
All That I Have Lived For
Is Wrapped Up In This Moment
As I Am Wrapped In My Heavy Grey Bathrobe
With The Spears Of Light Forever Above Me
And All Down Around Me
How Have I Gotten This Far?
Through A Child’s Adoration Of A Pair
Of Love Birds To A Mother’s Love
Of Her Dearest 2.4’s
The Evening Light Is Upon The East
Illuminating The Scrub Spruce Forest
And I Have Come This Far
June 8, The Hawk Living Room 10:00pm
I’ve Caught The Moon
In My Living Room Sky Light
Arriving
Through This Late
And Early
Evening
I See Its Thin Beam
Shining Down To Our Balcony
Through The Spindles
Defining Shadows
Of The Luminous Streaks
Of My Age
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:36am
The Silver Streaks, magnificent
are encapsulated
within My Mind
& I know They’re out there
on the water
& in The Grey Clouds, lateral
edged in white
I know The Silver Scape
is there
because I see It
though It shifts
on the horizon
I hold It
fixed
Joanna Gilman Hyde 