Hello Billy (me)
"fuck off you dirty old bastard
stood there watching me swim in the cut,
why are you smiling?"
"Keep swimming Billy"
keep swimming in everything you do,
upstream, downstream; it doesn't matter
where you swim, enjoy the doing of it.
jump in, splash like a mer-child,
scream like a wet banshee.
live the thrill of the dive and the depth-charge,
enjoin those you love to swim by your side
charge through the water, plough it
like a submariner leaving white water wakes.
don't worry about the wet shorts and vest,
the violence, the pain.
wash it off in the shallows, if they persist
dive, dive as deep as you can and cleanse,
be strong, be silent, be hard.
let the water be your tears, bathe in them.
soon you'll know compassion as confetti
and forgiveness as the brightest of rainbows.
the pain will be fleeting, embrace it like you would
a puppy that needs holding.
you cannot be broken, not if you swim
not if you swim.
i love you.
[the cut, is the canal]
"fuck off you dirty old bastard
stood there watching me swim in the cut,
why are you smiling?"
"Keep swimming Billy"
keep swimming in everything you do,
upstream, downstream; it doesn't matter
where you swim, enjoy the doing of it.
jump in, splash like a mer-child,
scream like a wet banshee.
live the thrill of the dive and the depth-charge,
enjoin those you love to swim by your side
charge through the water, plough it
like a submariner leaving white water wakes.
don't worry about the wet shorts and vest,
the violence, the pain.
wash it off in the shallows, if they persist
dive, dive as deep as you can and cleanse,
be strong, be silent, be hard.
let the water be your tears, bathe in them.
soon you'll know compassion as confetti
and forgiveness as the brightest of rainbows.
the pain will be fleeting, embrace it like you would
a puppy that needs holding.
you cannot be broken, not if you swim
not if you swim.
i love you.
[the cut, is the canal]