|
Back to Swimming Articles
New Articles Please
Backstroke Ban
Bilateral Breathing
Building
a Swimming Pool
Heidi's
Channel Swim
Swimming &
Epilepsy
Your
Infant's First Swim
Learn to Swim Award
Mother & Child Drown
Poem -
Swimming Lessons
Stretching
For Streamlining
Taking the
Plunge
Swimming Pool Safety for Children
Swimming With Dolphins
Teach
Baby to Swim?
Teaching Swimming
Toddler
Drowning
Up the
River
Winded
and Weary?
Swimming Articles
The small print:
These articles contain the opinions of the
authors. The contents do not represent our views and we do not endorse
any product or viewpoint expressed in these articles unless specifically
indicated.
All articles used on this site are
believed to be in the public domain unless stated otherwise, if there is an
error please contact me by
email
and I will accredit the article or remove it from the site.
Swimming Clubs
|
Swimming Lessons reprinted with kind permission of
Deanna Young and the Arc Poetry Society, Ottawa, Canada
Swimming Lessons
by Deanna Young
Our children are bottom-feeders, feeling for a puck
in the deep end. Floridian in fuchsia suits, they surface
fish-eyed in goggles, gasp, and snort blue water.
We sit on the sidelines, barefoot, tapping
chlorinated puddles. Pass comments back and forth
like cards. In my mind we are pressing
the soles of our feet together. I never get my wish.
The lesson is always over before I drag you to the deck,
cup one hand under your chin, pinch your nose,
and breathe myself into your lungs. Our children appear
in garish towels, unrelated, though clearly
the same species: purple around the gills, hair sleek
as sealskin. Whatever happens they will all know how
to swim. It is our job to see that nothing does happen.
In the parking lot after balmy showers, blowfish
bobbing around us in parkas, mouths steaming,
you stretch, and mention how you spent the week
knocking down a concrete wall. With your head?
I wonder out loud. And later, what it takes to get through.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Prize, Poem of the Year Contest 2003 Arc 51, Winter 2003
|
