Lengths
It occurs to me from time to time,
As my head emerges from the water
Lungs hurting and gasping
Grasping at the air
Breathless from the effort
Between tired strokes
Sometimes near choking
In the wave-wash
The careless backlash of others
As they speed through the swell
In elegant freestyle
Like spectacled dolphins,
That there must be a better way
That there are easier means
Than this daily immersion,
In stinging chlorine spray
To drag along an ungainly body
Through the crash and splash
Beyond the pain barrier
Of an aching, heaving chest
And exhausted arms and legs
Which soon lose co-ordination
And their sense of rhythm
Between the lines of lanes
And ability to continue
On the straight and narrow
And that perhaps it’s all pointless
Swimming end to end
The relentless back and forth
Of many measured lengths
To ignore the overwhelming urge
To simply stop and float awhile
Then sink slowly to the bottom
To inspect the detail
And the regular pattern
Of white and blue tiles
Whilst the other bathers carry on
And the lifeguard looks on in horror
At the body of a drowning man
Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2013
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