Being old now and often
eyed on sideways and other
ways for anything suspicious
in my behavior or appearance
I am swimming stroke by
easy stroke down an early
morning lane in the
YMCA pool and all of a
sudden damn here comes water
sneaking inside my goggles
and my eyes blur and I
stop and grab on the wall at
the end not happy and Trish
who is teaching her class down
the way shouts out Ed are you
all right? meaning cramps or
pains or even those sudden
heart things and I say yes I’m
okay it’s just goggles and
then resume lapping and
after that I think on the
lessons here and finish up the
swim and heading out I
pause and share with Trish the
deeper meaning as I see it:
Swim goggles are like
people – they do
act up sometimes.