saturday afternoon adult swim - samuel clemen's sinking in the shallow end clawing at the water like he's tearing apart paper - panic in his eyes as is white mustache goes under and he kicks sideways, bowlegged and desperate - butterflies in the middle lane and my shrink hangs on the edge of the deep end in the fast lane - though he is not fast - mumbling under his breath, treading water 7 feet deep, the lifeguard in his orange jumpsuit thinks "he's seen me before" - he is sitting in an office chair on the wrong side of the pool - holding court called nothing-better-to-do. it's a sermon of sorts, a man and a woman and a young asian girl who is perched on the top step of the ladder, listen to him like it's class - why wall street is called wall street and when the pool used to be an unmanned ship - "it's not seniority - it's political" - politics of sinking - mad man in the fast lane tells a woman in a rainbow swim cap she's not fast enough to be in there - she doesn't speak english - so he demonstrates, fast stroke v. slow stroke - she swims toward the lifeguard and tries to translate - her missing teeth reveal themselves as she tries to laugh "i slow" - and i stay nonstop back and forth - maneuvering other swimmers like a defensive driver - someone touches my toe - someone swats my side - a woman who has been bumped from the fast lane is in the shallow end doing her "drills" she tells me as she dives up and down then swims to the 5 ft marker and turns around - it's a greenhouse swamp today and i cleared slush puddles flowing with garbage to get here. in the locker room a woman from the middle lane pulls off her swimsuit - her hair stayed dry somehow - it's red and curly passed her shoulders - she waddles naked from the shower to the locker next to me - i take in all of her - hairless where hair should be - and multiple dimples on her butt cheeks - on the way out i see her putting on a bike helmet - it's raining and the B-52s bounce into my ears - no one is around - my body is wasted and heavy - all this gravity - at leroy and 7th ave there's nowhere to cross without sinking - wade into the street - at home i look up why wall street is called wall street - the 17th c Dutch were kinda nuts - but that is not what the lifeguard was telling his students - guess it depends on who's reading what