The Blue of the Swimming Pool

The blue of the Swimming Pool isn’t a real blue
And there is no easy way to describe it as water;
It transforms an ordinary backyard and the ordinary people
Who roar up in trucks, sitting stunned for a moment
Now that there is no longer the moving belt bearing them on;
Getting unbelieving out of the tucks, setting up playpens,
Getting undressed and into bathing suits and finally entering
The Pool.

The Cat sits (while no one is looking) on the portulaca
In the rock garden and looks at the people in the unbelievable
Not real blue of the Swimming Pool. There are the very young
Grandparents, their own married young and the spouses
And the assorted babies of the married young. Muscular,
Shining, joyous, the babies unafraid, they all accept the water
Moment: fountain of life or very womb.

And the Cat looks on
In the sharp sunlight and drinks in at the eye the not real blue
Of the Swimming Pool and the swimmers transformed and moving
Freely, ordinary and beautiful.

Colleen Thibaudeau, 1984

“The Blue of the Swimming Pool” is from The Martha Landscapes (1984) and available from Brick Books.

( ( ( 0 ) ) ) Listen to Colleen Thibaudeau read the poem here.
(Souwesto Words, 1999. Courtesy Ergo Productions)