An observation about life...the pool...the past |
Nothing about this place seems real It’s too quiet, to etherial The way golf courses stretch out in emerald yawns And topaz skies wrap clouded arms around mountain tops Carpets of flowers twisting delicate petals to face the sun If you strain, there’s a warm hum you can hear A golden buzz that vibrates in the light here The back of my neck is against the pool my unseen amber gaze watching taut young adult forms fall, gracelessly, towards the azure depths Droplets shining like a thousand cut diamonds scattered into the sky with a smack to the surface Then falling in a showered cascade of glittering youth I took diving lessons for years, part of me wants to join them, to climb the frigid white latter and walk right to the edge Give it a good start up and a hop before forcing my toes to leave the ledge I can almost hear the whisper of my swim instructor, her words tickling my ear “Hands on point, head tucked, body bent and then straight, feet together in perfect form dear” I know that I could slip into the water with no ceremony, no sound, letting the surface envelope me forcing the outside world’s cacophany to drown It reminds me of worn yellow tiles at my feet, watching the shower water drain The smell of neon-bottled L’oreal shampoo and the rub of the plastic shower curtain against my pruned up fingers I can still see the ceiling of my practice facility as I backstroked the length of the pool, experiencing a moment of peace, suspended, weightless I float In an environment so different from the yellow brown sand dirt outside From the chalky wind-whipped gusts that wrap invisible hands around my choking eleven-year-old throat They’re the same age as me...the people at the pool...late twenties but they seem younger Like rugged rocks chiseled out of a mountain face and I’m a smooth pebble, tossed and scraped and worn by the raging currents and the rising tides of past nights and endless days I want to climb back into the mountain to be chiseled out again But I can never add back what was worn away I will never fit with them |