The Hyde Inquiry | Joanna Gilman Hyde

THE APPARITION

The Hawk Queen Bed 4:38pm

Today on 2 hrs sleep

from 2 mgs Ativan

I began the sculpted head

of My Beautiful Dark Haired Woman

Who appeared on My Right Shoulder

in Roseway Hospital

October 1993

–

She said a lullaby in My Ear —

the most melodious voice I had ever heard

and today I have swaddled a Styrofoam core

in thin slices of plasticine

hyperventilating as I went

hearing My Son’s suggestion

from yesterday’s walk on The Hawk Beach —

“Mom, why don’t You just

exhaust Your Self?”

every slice

from a red-handled knife My Brother gave Me

pushed Me on to panel the form —

My Goal was to cover it, and I did

after carving HTWH in the Styrofoam skull

resting on My Ceramic Bluenose Plate

My Keepsake from the childhood crossings

in that vessel from Bar Harbor, Maine

to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

when I was so happy

with My Little Family

of Mother, Brother and Me

RELEASED AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE

Eliza’s Room 9:32pm

I slept in a nunnery the night before

I took My Brother Howard out

of Mt. Sinai Hospital

where He thought The World had ended

and a nurse told Me

He was not ready to leave —

I got Him on a bus

to the Toronto airport

where He thought the man behind us

was Our Second Cousin Billy —

Howard paced around while We waited

to board the plane —

He demanded to speak to The Captain —

He thought the plane would crash —

He had crashed

My dear terrified Brother

and My Mother and I

tried to take care of Him

with an Orthomolecular Diet

I tried to persuade Him

that His Hallucination

in Saudi Arabia

of His Step-brother shooting Him

in the stomach

with a “laser gun”

was nothing more than a dream —

He was fated to die

twenty-five years later

at the hands of jail guards

from The Burnside Correctional Centre

in Nova Scotia

having been “tasered” five times

by Halifax Regional Police

within the last thirty-six hours

of His Life

TRIUMVIRATE

The Hawk Living Room 4:30pm

A new arrangement of paintings

builds a triangle upon My Living Room Wall:

My Mother’s Portrait as a very young woman

painted by My Uncle

dresses the wall below My Balcony

hanging in the middle

above two impressionist paintings

of Africa — She took Me

as an infant to grow there

in Gabon and came home

with these two paintings

I framed in art school —

one showing a grass-roofed hut

palm trees with seated figure —

the other showing four bark canoes

and two figures readying them

in the foreground of open water

and open sky —

My First Year In Africa

She called The Worst Year

of Her Life — spent insomniac

underweight, pregnant

with My Fated Brother —

Africa inspired Her Novel

NOT EVEN THE MOON

never published —

Her Portrait looks down

to those two African paintings

and I look up to all three

MAUDLIN POEM

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 4:20pm

My Brother, Who’s Dead,

used to make & bring

a cup of tea

sipping off the too-full brim

before handing it

to Me

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A BIRTHDAY

The Hawk Portico 6:00pm

I have shed The Cloak

of Both My Parents

and That Which I shared with My Brother

Who would have been 51 today*

–

I am The Sole Survivor

of That Family

The Family I was born headlong into —

My “Old” Family —

as I have wrapped My Self anew

within Hunter, My Grown Children

and 7 Cats

*My brother Howard Talbot Walden Hyde was killed November 22, 2007, while in custody. His death prompted the three-year Hyde Inquiry which found his death to be accidental due to restraint by jail guards — namely one Henwood.

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Joanna Gilman Hyde

Tag: The Hyde Inquiry

August 28, 2016

THE APPARITION

May 15, 2016

RELEASED AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE

March 6, 2016

TRIUMVIRATE

January 23, 2016

MAUDLIN POEM

October 6, 2013

A BIRTHDAY