Public Pool - Jan 3 2023

 

Public Pool

Jan 3 2023

The wheeled walker

was tucked into a corner

of the public pool change-room.

But coming and going

it was unavoidable,

like a sober memento mori

reminding us

that despite our youthful conceit

of exuberant health

and presumed immortality

we, too, will need one some day.

If we're lucky enough, that is

to live that long.

You see every version of the human body

in a public change-room.

There is no “normal” here;

we are all singular.

The skinny and fat

and morbidly obese.

The hirsute and sleek,

as well as body hair

where you'd least expect it.

The consequence

of infirmity and vanity,

of years

ravaged by sun.

Like the old man

who winters in Florida,

and whose badly wrinkled skin

looks like permanently tanned leather.

The 20-somethings

preening in front of the mirror

unfazed by their vanity;

and the shy adolescent boys,

who shower in their bathing suits

and change in the toilet stalls

where they can't be seen.

The old codger

must have limped out to the pool,

navigating the shower room

with its wet slippery floors,

the glazed tiled deck

where heedless little kids

run instead of walk.

Slipped

into the warm chlorinated water

and slipped off the years,

churning up and down the outside lane;

gratefully weightless

and looking much the same

as everyone else.