Friday, June 25, 2004

I Saw Her Swimming There

I watched this lithe young woman in the pool this evening. There were several people in the pool within her group, all looking very corn fed and paunchy, but she stood out from the rest. Long and tawny, she was like an otter in the water, whereas the others looked like potatoes on the boil. I was soon totally engrossed by this woman and her movements, fascinated by a figure of which one doesn’t see everyday.
Someone, one of her corn fed compadres, brought a beach ball and they began a game of keep away. While all the others were floundering to keep their heads above the water, she managed to tread it without exerting any movement or visible energy at all. While others thrashed and went nowhere, with several deft strokes she would glide through the water with effortless ease, grabbing the ball, treading the water, shoulders high, and with precison throw the ball to her target. In a world of clumsiness, she was grace and fluidity.
After a while the game broke up, more like everyone growing tired rather than an official ending. Most gravitated to a couple of floats. She didn’t. While others hung rather clumsily onto the rafts, she remained off to herself, lost in the night, under the stars, in her own world.
She would bob until only her face would remain above the water. That face like a moon, shining bright. Then with a twist, she would float on her back, slowly arching her stomach, her thighs, her knees, her feet, til they were level with the surface, whereupon she would briskly kick and slice through the water at great speed, almost the length of the pool by virtue of a few scissors. Then she would tread again, slowly spinning and twirling, her head thrown back, her eyes closed; languidly, sensuously. I watched her dip beneath the surface and torpedo the entire pool with a speed that almost didn’t look real, her sleek, supple body knifing the water. She would surface and tread again, smiling at the sky, before sliding beneath the surface, sinking to the bottom and disappearing. All alone. In her world. In a world that is not inherently ours, but she’d made it her own. And I was lucky enough to be there, watching something as graceful and beautiful as I’ve ever seen.
The gods were with me tonight. And I them.
Oh beautiful child, I thank you.

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