swimming is an excellent way to stretch out “torch shoulders”, that tightening of shoulder muscles after a long session of hunching over the torch to create glass beads. as i glide through the pool, thoughts glide through my mind. there is no train of thoughts, they do not connect. in the pool thoughts bubble up to the surface, flit into life, pop and disappear… there is one spot 3/4 of the way down the pool where the sun hits the water at this time of the morning. everytime I swim through this spot the water lights up and a thought bubble bright as sunshine appears… bright blue, like the aegean sea in greek travel posters, impossibly blue against snow white houses…bright blue like the morpho butterflies in the costa rican jungle… clear water with mosaic tiles below me… i’ve forgotten my comb and my hair looks like “a dogs breakfast” as my mum used to say, what’s with the “dogs breakfast”?… the swimmer in front of me is in a black and white polka dotted bathing suit, her bathing suit morphs into a bracelet… why are they called polka dots? must look that up…
a dog’s breakfast – a mishmash of scraps. Being one of the strange wacko-s that feeds a natural diet – let me tell you, the dog’s breakfast – say, an egg broken into the bowl, a big gooey piece of liver, a chicken neck, and a piece of burnt toast (they get scraps, leftovers, and accidents too!) – mighty disgusting. They love it!
Now, if I’d forgotten MY comb – MY mother would have said – “You look like you’ve been dragged through a knothole, backwards.”