A nod to the Sherbrook Pool, my favourite swimming hole; and a nod to Mick Burrs’s collection Blue Pools Of Paradise by Coteau Press back in the day when there was a Coteau Press and a Mick Burrs. Title from a meme and screen display I often saw in my psychiatrists office. Water Photo not at Sherbrook Pool. by Lynn Chalmers.
Accidental skin photo by Victor Enns.
Pain erases thinking, you don’t need to suffer I’m told
just notice your pain and it will become a blue colour,
like an infinity pool, your crippled body looks to find zero
gravity such a bastard to your body, your discs descending,
cartilage missing in action, pity the poor nerves being squeezed
for everything they’ve got, you are the body electric as you struggle
to the Hoyer, lifeguard at the ready to lift you out
of your blue pool of paradise
o
n Sherbrook Avenue. You change. Outside
the ramp red lights you up. Pain erases thinking,
Pain doesn’t need thinking, Pain rolls you up
wrings you like a wet towel, don’t cry little man. Visualize!
See, spontaneous combustion does the trick. Ashes finalize.