Theme Fridays
It’s Friday so that could only mean one thing…
Annie, J and i humbly offer you our latest theme- swimming pool. We’ve each our take on the subject and i think that you will enjoy them all.
In her swimming pool, Annie floats under the warmth of the SoCal sun.
J suns herself next to her swimming pool.
Please be sure to visit all of us. Relax at the…
swimming pool
Skin holds the scent of chlorine. The water is warm- blue green drops cling to my ears, the tip of my nose. And I am a bag of flesh, my bones steep like tea. The pool is filled with me, with my body; it steals away the heat of my blood, bleaches the shine from my hair, strips the oil of my skin.
My hair sinuates underwater like coppery seaweed. My color pales. Tiny bubbles gather themselves on my surface. I float on my back like driftwood, flotsam, and stare up into the sky. It is a white sky. It is blank and blind like me. Water sloshes in and out of my ears- a melodic arrhythmia- and when the sun makes every thing green I turn, swim down to the bottom like in my dreams.
In which I live in the water. I remain there- unlike real life where I am pulled back up to the hardness of heat, the ache of it- noisy, sharp. No, in my dreams I walk along the floor of the pool. Instead of a rough concrete, there is cool smoothness underfoot. I breathe water like air. It is silent and the world beyond the rippling surface becomes beautiful. I wake up. Because it is a dream and even in them I do not get what I want.
I swim to the bottom like a fish, a dolphin an eel- smooth and sinewy muscle motion- a shark. My hair soft and waving coral. I keep my face as close to the floor as possible. The dense liquid pushes me up and away. I turn and spin and flip to look up, like in my dreams, at the sun beyond, waving, dancing on the skin of the pool. I wonder how my face looks. Do its features soften, pale, undulate beneath the ripples? Is it better buried in the water? Am I finally a lovely strange thing like I feel inside? I hear the others, out there, voices blunted by the water. I hear my blood racing around frantic for oxygen. I tease it, my heart, my lungs. I think I should breathe it in, drown in it. So peaceful here I want to remain forever- soft, quiet, wet…
I explode up and out into the suffocating air. Sucking my stomach in I climb out of the swimming pool. Spent, I go indoors and fall asleep on the couch, the shape of my body leaking, darkening its fabric.
(copyright 2008 ) c A Hughes
06.28.08
Um, brilliant.
You’ve completely outdone yourself again, christine. Really. This is quite fantastic.
Thanks J.
i feel shy…
~c
Mmm, I went on that trip with you, beneath the water in the silent world of a womblike existence. And it stirred some memories of doing that myself. When I was a kid, I would just go underwater to get away – to hide in my own head and world. Haunting, beautiful, so you.
Annie
Thank you, Annie.
And that’s exactly what it is, how it feels- womblike.
Dang it! i wish i would’ve thought to’ve mentioned that in my short…
~c
What memories you evoked. When I was a kid, underwater was the only place to swim, the only way to be truly in the water, one with the water. Why else be in the pool at all.
Exactly!
i love to swim. i can’t go underwater because my nose piercing is still healing.
But next year it’s gonna be me at the bottom of the pool, hand-stands and smooth dives…
~c
You wrote a great piece as usual. I’m glad I didn’t have to write about swimming pools. It would actually only be a few words: panic, fear, I’m drowning. I can’t swim. I even flunked swimming lessons when I was young.
Funny.
We all took swimming lessons when we were little. One of my sisters sat on the side of the pool until the last day, when she finally jumped in. She’s still not much of a swimmer…
But that could’ve been your story- not swimming in the swimming pool and all your feelings around that.
~c
womblike, silent, FULL. Weighty!
That sums it up perfectly!
~c
What PiedType said. This was sooo evocative of childhood. Really great stuff here.
Thank you, Wendy.
Ideally speaking, swimming is when we can feel free to splash and look a wet mess and not care and just have fun!
Except for those who are strictly lappers. i can respect that but to me, just lapping is boring.
i always swim laps but afterward, i go nuts!
~c
I love the water! This is good…I’m most impressed with the way you girls do this…I quite look forward to Fridays to see what you have to offer…
Good job!
Thank you, anonymum!
It’s fun and challenging- these Theme Fridays.
And we always talk about how exciting it is to see one another’s work on Friday morning.
i’m positive you’ll enjoy them as much as we do!
~c
That Was so great
Well Thanks Kaylee!
That gives me satisfaction. i’m glad you liked this.
~c
“Am I finally a lovely strange thing like I feel inside?”
whoever our narrator is, i have a feeling the answer is
yes yes yes.
Thank you, on behalf of the speaker.
Funny when i read your reply, i recalled scrunching my face into a fist so i wouldn’t actually drown. How that must look to others!
~c
aww . . so nice. i love the feeling of water going in and out of the ears. you described this beautifully.
Thanks, Red!
Wait until next Friday. Jess picked a doozy! Fun, but a doozy none the less.
~c
I’m pretty sure I can barely swim above water. I spent all my time underwater as a kid, I can’t even do the breast stoke or any of those “above water” type swims. Laps are, for me, out of the question unless I can do them underwater.
i am a fairly decent swimmer- not greatly skilled- but decent.
The breast stroke is not something i can do, but i figure that’s only for olympiads or swim team folks anyway…
i can swim pretty straight doing the free stroke, but prefer being swimming like a fish.
~c
C, your line that gets me somewhere in my innards is ~ “Because it is a dream and even in them I do not get what I want.” Don’t get me wrong, I was transported by your whole story/essay, but it was reading that line that made me exhale. junemoon
Thank you, junemoon.
It makes me sad a little, because it’s true.
~c
I like these images of swimming underwater in a smooth, tiled pool. I, too, like the line that clancyjane likes.
Thank you, S.
i think underwater is my best look. i should’ve been a mermaid.
Although the ocean is different than the pool. Still…
i love most the change in sounds while underwater.
~c