The Hawk West Desk Window 7:04pm
I Lift The Shade
From My Husband’s Nap
To Check The Progress
Of The Sun — It
Lays Out Her Silver
Upon The Bay
An Hour Before The Set
We’ll Watch
The Tomato-coloured Couch 1:18pm
The Polish has been subdued a little
off My Sparkling Day —
I am inside with the cool wind out
The Radio is on
I am drinking copious quantities of water
from My Glass Marked “LIFE”
–
1:25pm
The World can reach into My Heart
& pull out all The Hope It Needs
to get Us through this rough time
this transition from Gold to Silver
Day to Night
Sun to Moon
West to East
Man to Woman
Yes, take It all —
It’s free, right here
My Hope Lives
Where I Live
The Hawk Kitchen 6:30pm
The Clouds Along The Eastern Horizon
are light, light cream and blue
with a darker bank, fog-like, above
Meanwhile, to The West
The Horizontal Clouds Are Dark Blue
with white, feathery banking
highlighted
by a hidden sun
–
I look from East To West
and back again
and watch the tricky play of light
unfolding off
a day of rain
The Hawk Living Room 1:45pm
I am sitting in a beam of sun
in a velvet chair
anything can happen here
in My Mind
any thought can be unleashed
with or without choice:
How do I know
I am deliberately
recalling
the total lack
of sun
in The Yarmouth Psychiatric Unit?
I am dressed for The Sun
in Floppy Sun Hat
& Long Mexican House Dress
with Sunscreen on My Arms
45 years or more
away from when My Mother
dressed Me
in My Sun Pants & nothing else
& sent Me outside
away from Harm
on Our Sunny Nova Scotia Island
I remember lying in That February Sun
or was it March or April?
inadequate
with a step-sister who couldn’t help Me
no one could
I had abandoned My Self
to My Suffering
alleviated only by
bed-lying
couch-lying
& towel-lying on driveway stones
in the tepid sun
of 1997
Joanna Gilman Hyde 