PISCINÃO BLUE

The real reason why we never jumped into the pool was

well freddy never was a good jumper betty never was a

good sport aunt amy always talked about tea pots and

tea plates and spoons and her lost loving pomegranates

and dad kept drawing leopards in every wall if our house

Please don’t ask about mom or mom’s dress made of flowers

made of silk made of every shade of desmond’s fears

Little timmy sang a song about our only friend Kazakalim

whose skin was dark whose blood was dim whose chest

was shiny as the wooded flute that father used to clean

every morning every midday every night and every dawn

as mother danced around the oak tree which surely did

contain a bird contain a whale contain a stack of all our tears.

Matilde Campilho