Monday, October 17, 2016

Gone Swimmin'


I got up early Saturday morning to be able 
to get to a swim meet on time. Afraid I'd sleep through 
the electronic beep of my radio alarm, 
I hadn't slept much the night before, so I was up
at 5 a.m., showered, had breakfast, made certain
my backpack had all the stuff I needed,
then left to catch the 5:45 bus.
A few minutes later, the bus rolled up, a giant
black box on wheels that held its light inside,
a lantern I could sit inside as the beacon
made its way downtown.


After transferring to a second bus
I arrived at an intersection where I walked
a few blocks east to the Ruth Lilly
Recreation Center found an outside entrance 
to the pool then sat down to watch the U of I
swim team's morning practice. 
On the way, I saw a lot of sculptures
dotting the campus grounds, some of them swooping
into space, others coming out of the ground,
as though born there.
The just emerging dawn lent a fresh feel
to the atmosphere and I felt as though I was
the first to see the world that day,
clean and new, unspoiled by greed and
current events.


2 comments:

William Kendall said...

A good way to wake yourself up too.

Speedway said...

I dunno, William. I could easily have curled up on a bench at the pool to doze. The sound of the swimmers' kicking was rhythmic, almost hypnotic.