The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:42pm
On This 20th Anniversary
Of The Magical Moment With The Little Man
I Am Seething With Power
I Am Empowered By The Jewels I Wear
My Watch, Rings, Silver Bracelet
A Starfish At My Throat
I Am Empowered By The Music
On The Radio
By My New Clothes — Dark Grey Pants
Variegated Sweater
Power Buttons On My Sleeves
I Am Ready For That Little Man
Who Is Mighty Big
In My Estimation —
He Flies…
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
The Hawk West Desk Window 1:22pm
Mine is The Face
He fell in love with
monitoring My Pregnancy
with My Son in 1987
–
Mine is The Stomach
He patted at the end
of each appointment
–
Mine is The Voice
He adored in Its Stridency
October 22, 1993
when He allowed Me to tell Him
“There is A God”
–
Mine are The Arms He caressed
–
Mine is The Brain
He used to send His Telepathic Message
on Divine Love
–
Mine is The Body
He refuses now to doctor
The Hawk Portico 5:30pm
I have heard Silence
as if for the first time
but It was immediately washed over
by the sounds of birds, familiar
& waves, less so, but distinct —
in The Birds I hear My Childhood
— a signal to My Bearings now —
in The Waves I hear
cessation of endless thinking
The Call
to try & sleep
as delivered by My Own Private God
on My Right-hand Shoulder:
“You know The Meaning Of Life
& so You are A Star —
so go
to
Sleep”
The Hawk Portico 4:41pm
I have been on The Left-hand Side
of Madness
when I thought I knew something
no one else could know
but in My Terror
I called My Muse
Who sat steady
on My Left-hand Shoulder
& spoke to Me
through My Heart
to assure Me
that not only He
but the entire World
already
knows
My
Secret
The Hawk Portico 3:10pm
That Little Man was not any part
of My Magnificent Shower Of Silver Lights
March 31st 1993
He came later
October 22nd 1993
Can I cancel Him out now
twenty years since
He caressed My Arms
in silence
upon My Conveyance
“There
Is
A
God”
?
Suddenly I drew in My Breath
but when I exhaled
was He Gone?
The Hawk Portico 2:15pm
The Insect World
IS This World
How I love Their hovering —
They can spy on Me
all They want
as I spy on Them
with Their iridescence
Their cellophane wings
or if They crawl
Their multitudinous legs
They’re the only Aliens
We need
The Hawk West Desk Window 10:22pm
She wore Her Layers of Spandex Grey
& stepped upon the ladder
“I’ll have to have The Man I Made
and It’s no laughing matter”
He then appeared in Spandex White
& claimed Her Hand was His —
off They flew into The Night
A Duo on Their Dash to “IZ”
The Hawk Family (TV) Room 2:45pm
You stand before Me
in all Your Garish Black
quiet now because I don’t even know how
to turn You on
but I see That Red Light
on Your Lower Left
It speaks of Alarm
–
You say You need Me
My Innocence
yet You have outraged Me
by Your Silence when I asked
for direction
but I have
acquiesced
still clinging to what remains
of My Power
for I have what You want
& what I want from You now
are Your Insides:
I want Those Guts
I hate
I want to infest Them
& suffocate
under
Your Glaring Lights
Your Stabbing
Throbbing
Lights
The Hawk Family Room 6:42pm
I need You Little Girl
I need Your Innocence
Your Honesty
I see You in Your Mint-coloured
Button-down Shirt
Your Rings, Your Watch, Your Esty Swirl Bracelet
You’re just what I’m looking for
You hold The Key
to unlock Humanity
& I need Humanity
I need to show The Dead Bodies
I need to host The Sporting Events
I need to advertise The Products
of Life
for this is The Earth
I was conceived upon
— as You were —
& I need You
I need Your Framework Of Understanding
I need Your Voice
Joanna Gilman Hyde