SO SWIM
By Gerard Gotladera (March 29, 2013)
There was always
something beyond the pool. And the tall, tall trees that stood guard around it.
And beyond it, deep past the darkness I've known and somewhere farther than
what I've explored. And it stares right back at you, that something,
comfortably darker than the dark itself yet oddly bright that it stands out,
impossible to miss...
Eyes...
Cold.
White.
Eyes with a drop of what once was
some hue. It disappears when you've stared too long, like a blink or a flash of
light or an idea so good, so quickly conceived it leaves the moment it comes to
life.
Too fast it disappears that you'd
ask yourself if you've truly seen something, anything at all...
...I swam through the lunar blue
of our pool, feeling my beating heart nestled safe and warm deep in the recesses
of muscle, bone and skin. As I rolled through the surface, looking up and
stabling myself on the water, I could still feel and hear it. It had calmed me,
this kind of stillness all over, except for the heart. It reminded me for
17 years that despite what could've been-should've been, I still am alive...
...
