Saturday morning swim Part Deux: Rhythms

There are three of us in the pool, each making our steady lines back and forth, back and forth. Our breaths, in and out, bubbles to the surface, a gasp inwards, and again, and repeat, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, (in my case); But we all have our own rhythms. For a moment, all three of us are resting and the surface of the pool slowly returns to calmness, we all breathe in and out together, at three corners, and the surface slowly settles, as though our collective calm were calming it too. I set off first, into that calm, smooth water, but slowly, reverently. I break the surface with my hands, but gently, stroke, stroke, stroke, and then another person joins in, adding their rhythm to mine and we are making music, dum-dadumdum, dum-dadumdum, and on top of that dumdumdidum, dumdumdidum, and then a third beat joins in and we are a symphony of watersounds, rhythmic, polyrhythmic, complex and yet simple, a human aquatic harmony.