Exulansis
See that white butterfly right there, that one, pieris rapae
perched on the rose bush to pray before gliding over gladiolas?
I want to tell you that’s my Avó come to visit, remind me
that life is suffering and skirmish and strolls through a garden
girdled with beauty. I want to convince you that the dead come back
to watch our back, keep us from stepping in shit twice. With a flick
of its wings, these bug-ghosts save us every day from ourselves.
Don’t you know? Oh, forget it. Forget my wild beliefs and tenuous truths.
Two sweet pups sleep on the couch, cuddled together in a bundle
of fur, the youngest flat on the floor, tongue out like red carpet.
These things you know, you see, you understand.
Marina Carreira (she/they) is a queer Luso-American poet artist from Newark, NJ. She is the author of Tanto Tanto (Cavankerry Press, 2022) and Save the Bathwater (Get Fresh Books, 2018). She has exhibited her art at the Newark Museum, Morris Museum, ArtFront Galleries, West Orange Arts Council, Monmouth University Center for the Arts, among others. Find her on Instagram at @savethebathewater.
Other Works
Wheelbarrow
by Simon Graham
... A wheelbarrow awaited the couple in the carpark ...
The Frosted Glass Pane
by J.F. Gleeson
... There was a man, I believe at least, who would stand on the other side of the pane of frosted glass ...