in praise of the public swimming pool

It costs nine rand (cash only!) to gain admittance to the Newlands Swimming Pools, a public facility in the leafy southern suburbs of Cape Town operated by the local government. There is a 50m lap pool (which hosted inter-school swimming galas in my youth and likely still does), a diving pool (mysteriously out of order) and a shallow bowl-shaped splash pool inhabited, so often, by deliriously joyful children who then picnic on the nearby shaded lawns after. The 50m pool (where I swam 2km yesterday) is sparkling, light-shattered, pristine chlorinated blue. A bounteous gift. A respite, a container, a blank page.