Screams of laughter, shouts of exultation.
White walls shimmering in the noonday heat.
Baking car [ark, airless, claustrophobic
Turnstile cranks and money chinks.
The pool, bright blue; electrifying,
An oasis in a fireball; Arabian white
Cool, clinical, reflecting walls.
Dark figures run, jump, dive, chase.
Blonde figures sit, shuffle, lie, vegetate.
Spumes of water shoot high; catching
The cartoon marlins dancing on concrete.
The turreted town peeps over green hills
And looks down on sea-kissed sandy shores
Small children in an underwater background
Swim between coral caves to mermaid songs.
Ice-lollies block the path to rows of cubicles
With tiled floors cold to touch
And sodden swimsuits left crumpled in a heap.
The shrill whistle of the lifguard breaks the spell
'No Diving', for the hundredth time today.
Down, down into the chlorine; cool, clear
An elbow here, an armpit there, a foot.
Burgling for breath, exhilarated, to the surface
Feet planted firmly on the tiling floor.
And now the artist's other wall appears
Surfers on high white waves; speed boats
Their long white ropes taut as a high wire.
A wall alive with movement, colour, life.
There goes the man who ploughs a lonely furrow
There giggling girls 'bevied' in bikinis
Brown boys with blond hair chase and snap their towels
A hot coffee now would sublime. Malmesbury Pool
'A place in Heaven'. Past, Present, Future, Bottled for all Time.
