Lengths
It occurs to me from time to time
That there must be a better way
My head emerging from the water
Grasping for the air
Gasping, lungs hurting
Breathless from the effort
Between tired strokes
Sometimes near choking
In the careless back-wash bow-wave
Of be-spectacled dolphins beside me
Speeding through the swell
In their effortless freestyle
And that there are easier means
Than this daily immersion
In stinging chlorine spray
To drag an ungainly body
Through the crash and splash
Beyond the pain barrier
Of an aching, heaving chest
And exhausted arms and legs
Soon losing their co-ordination
And any sense of rhythm
Between the lines of lanes
And ability to remain
On the straight and narrow
And that perhaps it’s all so… pointless
This 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
Amid the rising bubbles
To inspect the detail
And the regular pattern
Picked out in white and blue tiles
Whilst other bathers carry on
regardless
And a lifeguard looks on in horror
At the body of a drowning man
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