The front door bursts open 
ocean waves gush into the house
and beyond it 
the sky is a clean cerulean 
touched by a diamond air. 

Pirate John with his skull and bones
just lost the love of his life 
and steers a sinking ship
with teardrop on his lip
that’ll either hit or pass us
but it’s hard to tell
being so far and yet near. 

On the other hand,
once I was an invisible girl
who cut herself into mirrors – 

Self 1 sat on her knees
in grim attention
without a body 
but she spent her life
trying to piece herself
back together.

In this house where the ocean is
she read old books 
and once she finished them
they combusted into flames
even though there was water
everywhere.

Higher and higher the flames grew
by the gold-silled window
where the polaroids
of her mom and dad was. 

The darkest room in the house
had an enormous eye in it
the hazel eye of our dad
and hair made of trees - 
it was the guest room. 

Self 2 looked like Self 1 
but he was always standing
holding onto the ocean 
like a journal or a blanket
and gazing always
into that part of the house
that had no walls.

They both lived there 
in the house 
that was filling up with water 
where their fires grew. 

Far away beyond the pirate ship
there were 
planes and labyrinths of ice
and beyond that 
a yellow air-balloon 
racing towards them
with a gondola filled with flowers
like a mini garden 
this landscape promises to bring.

---

Stephano Pereira is a multimedia artist and writer from South Florida, currently residing in Seattle, WA. He's working on his first novel, an animated series, and has a talking cat.