6 pm, Today.
Floating on back. Visible: orange-tinged
nimbostrati against a violet sky; home-bound flock cutting diagonally
across. Ears plugged with water, limbs limp, toes and nose point
skyward. Except for sustained hollow sound of breathing, making its way
through water, wouldn't know if alive.
Flip around and
dunk head in water again. Commence swim. Water yields reluctantly,
dragging at arms. First time swimming with long hair. Unfamiliar, this
sudden cloud of black; blurring vision, stopping breath, curling around
neck. Homicidal, I tell you.
Here, in this chlorinated,
buoyant world, how nice to just surge forward like this. To breathe
every three strokes (alternate sides), to kick gently but firmly (no
breaking at the knees!), to remember from donkey's ears the tricks to
optimal movement. How lovely to have instinct (and years of drilling)
kick in and not have to think, to think.
Soon, fingers
shrivel up, body aches, and head feels marvellously blank. Such
prolepsis. Shall, not too long from now, be nothing more than prune,
slave to demands of muscles beyond control. But while we have these
things to own, let us endure as much as we can, yes? =)