Male,
'poem-picture artist', born 1950
I am in a swimming pool complex, which is outdoors. It’s
like one of those olympic swimming pool diving structures
merged with the sort of thing you might get at a
centreparks leisure complex. I am practicing shot putting
from the top of the diving board. Behind me there’s a water
inflow, the kind you get leading up to a water slide. The
water comes over the top of a shallow step, making a slight
waterfall after turning a corner. How the water comes up to
the top here I can’t tell. Round the corner of this stream
comes a large swan. It steps out of the water and
moves forward trying to drive me off the edge of the diving
board. I realise I must turn and tackle the swan. I reach
forward to grab it by the neck, knowing that I will
probably be pecked. I am resolved to grapple with it,
wrestle with it, defeat it. I don’t want to go off the edge
of this structure.