Joanna Gilman Hyde

The Hawk Queen Bed 10:22pm

I Come With A Story

& It ain’t very pretty

It ain’t no Barbie Doll story

where You make It up as You go along

It has all Its facts laid out

straight

bright & ugly

terrible in Its glory

It starts with a death

of The Mother, My Mother

Who entrapped Me on an island

off Nova Scotia —

Oh I’ve told this story so many times —

How when She died

I didn’t sleep for four days

How on the fourth day I asked for a sign

to comfort Me

& got smashed over the head

by a Shower Of Lights

so much so I thought I was The Second Coming Of Christ

I was taken to hospital

to a darkened little room

where I saw no less

than The Meaning Of Life

& I laughed

I saw God’s Joke opening out before My Eyes

& have never been able to tell It

I Come With A Joke

to set the world ablaze

with laughter — so much so

that no one can copulate

for several weeks at least

thereby making a blip

in the productivity of Human Kind

I Come With A Blip