Flickering moments
of a tram ride
echoing voices
showers
and blue water.
The smell of chlorine
while floating
as admiring teachers
watched
and talked.
Self-consciously
I spluttered upright
as if defeated
a memory
soon forgotten.
The sand
scuffed and blotched
with detritus
dried seaweed
shells and jellyfish.
Curling wavelets
sliding slowly
back and forth
towards the shallows
alive with tiny darting fish.
Translucent green blobs
and lacy filaments
delicately pale
hovered over
the sculpted sand.
Jumping to avoid
the breaking waves
flinching
at the shock
before plunging under.
One Saturday
Minh drove me
Kha-Nhu
and Thuan-Nhu
to the Glen Waverley Pool.
There was the same
pervasive
smell of chlorine
I remembered
so well.
The waves
were artificial
and the water
the same
synthetic blue.
Minh took
Kha-Nhu
and Thuan-Nhu
as I went
to the change-room.
Self-conscious
amidst the nudity
I undressed at a bench
with a hook
to hang my clothes.
I opened a heavy door
and sat on a bench
in the cloying
heat and humidity
of the steam-room.
The men above
lounged indolently
like emperors
sometimes stretching
creakily.
An Asian lady
entered unobtrusively
and sat nearby
just below
a bulging stomach.
In the silent swelter
an old man shuffled in
and sat
grim as sin
rearranging his neck.
Drained
as droplets odf sweat
slid down my nose
and chest
I rose and left.
After showering
I climbed down
to the spa
and sat
on a curving bench.
Jets of air
caused the water
to erupt
into pale-blue bubbles
flecked with silver.
The 'stomach'
and 'grim as sin'
clambered down
and sat silently
nearby.
Anonymous faces
and flabby bodies
sat together
like porpoises
or basking whales.
Around and inside
the pool
raucous adolescents
their bodies gleaming
gyrated and splashed.
Young attendants
at either end
looking bored
patrolled
covertly watching.
Little kids
with snorkels
dived
surfaced
and created waves.
I enviously watched
impressive hunks
churning
through the water
in adjacent lanes.
I climbed down
easing myself
into the water
ducking under a rope
into the adjoining lane.
Despite the traffic
I began
swimming laps
laboriously
on my back.
Nine year old
Kha-Nhu swam
three laps
to Minh's two
and to my one.
Navigating blindly
I became aware
of an Asian lady
who should have swam
in a faster lane.
She was moving
rapidly
and determinedly
towards me
like a kamikaze.
Attempting
to save myself
from being torpedoed
I began kicking
furiously.
With goggles
rising and falling
she surged closer
perhaps sensing danger
or a broken nose.
Abruptly
she changed course
veered away
under the ropes
and disappeared.
a
