The Hawk West Desk Window 8:11pm
I am the eleven-year-old school girl
trudging up Mountainview Avenue
deliberately crossing through woods
in front of My House
rather than take the paved drive way
–
I am a Tower of Poetic License
I write My Life as It comes to Me
in grades of Sterling Silver
in shades of reconciliation
between black & white
I am Alive
& I know it
even in My Seep
The Tomato-coloured Couch 1:52pm
I Am The Silver Bullet
Circling This Globe
Spermatozoan
In My Femininity
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:40pm
My Fame Will Be
This World’s
Freedom
–
When I Am Found Out
Inside & Out
We Will No Longer
Believe
In Schizophrenia
Bi-polar
& Other Multitudinous
“Psychiatric Illnesses”
–
Silver Will Sky-rocket
Gold Will
Linger In Its
Old-fashioned Luster
–
Man & Woman Will Live Together
Unrivalled
The Tomato-coloured Couch 2:10pm
I Am Dressing
For My Painting Today
Top Colour Orange
For The Spiral
Blue Jeans For The Sky
Magic Dangly Earrings
For Sprays & Sprinkles Along Curved Edges
Diamond Rings Of Wedding & Question Mark Moon
For The Interpretation
The Hawk Hallway 7:34pm
My Journal Upon My Lap
Braces My Right Thigh
Crossed Over My Left
With The Final Rays Of Sun
Gracing My Kneecap
–
I Am Sitting To Write
Of The Exciting Time
Of Royal Birth
Growth Of Gold & Silver
& My Magic Number
Of The Day
–
The Only Shadow
On Our Good Favour
Is The Disappearance
Of Hunter’s Cat Cami
For The Second Time
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:00pm
I stand in a shaft of sun
drinking from My Silver-frosted
Chalice of Life
I stop to look
at just what I am
consuming
I see The Earth
The Potency of Life
quivering
in My Well-oiled
Grip
The Hawk Portico 1:33pm
My Silver Spears, Swords
have armed Me
against the upheaval
of The World Economy
against The Super Bugs
of Hospital Rooms
& They have enabled Me
to sing out Their Praises
in The Enclosure
of My
Edge
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:45pm
I live in a place
where all the vehicles
are the colour of angels
& license plates signal Me
I’m wearing white shorts
& Silver jewellery
sitting on My Tomato-coloured Couch
listening to 90’s on 9
listening to the decade
of My hospitalizations
where I didn’t read
just wrote & talked
much like Now
except Now
I want to Live
The Tomato-coloured Couch 3:10pm
Once there was a little girl
whose mother died from a brain tumour
& the little girl didn’t sleep for four days
On the fourth day, March 31st 1993
the little girl looked for a sign
that she was going to be al-right
& the phone rang —
a nurse from the hospital was calling
to see if the little girl was al-right
& when the little girl said:
“DoDo, I Don’t Know How I Am”
The Nurse said She Would Come Right Over
The Little Girl hung up the phone
& went into Her Mother’s Kitchen
(but She doesn’t remember why)
whereupon She was struck
with the realization of an all-knowing
all-seeing Presence
She didn’t know what had just happened
so She went back to the daybed
where She had been trying to sleep
& as She sat, was sitting
The Cathedral Ceiling above
suddenly filled with Silver Streaks
of Light
Showering Down Upon Her
as She Cried Out
“Oh My God!
OH MY GOD!
OH MY GOD!”
Joanna Gilman Hyde 