Poem 79

Harking back to Rotorua and  evening swimming lessons … this was included in my Original Composition portfolio – so written in 1984 when I was writing two poems a day … I remember Bill Manhire remarking that there are a lot of animals in this poem …

( ever since I wrote this a calm sea in the rain is always the flat elephant’s back to me … )

Cramp

We always used it as the excuse
to get out of the pool
when the birds stopped
quiet in the trees
and it was dark and we were sick
of learning to swim

the instructor never dared
refuse envisaging dead kids
littered over the floor
of the pool
like water snails

we didn't have it of course
hardly knew what it was
but now
on the flat
elephant's back of sea
rain picking at the surface
it's not the fin
the dark shape beneath me
I wait for
but a tug just as sharp
that just as surely
will drag me down