Morning at the pool by Micheline Maylor

June 1, 2023
Poem title: Morning at the pool Poet name: Micheline Maylor Poem: Forty-seven laps to go, a man and his daughter timid at the edge, watch us two in our ordered lines, stark and serious. His belly overlaps his shorts, her lithe body brown, streamlined longs to play. I wink, encourage, “Cannonball!” his face becomes a slow smile, the invitation they need, and she’s in with a knee-up splash, then he’s in too, creating wake, surface level waves. His twelve year-old face rehabitates his middle age and they laugh, laugh, laugh, race a length and she’s calling, “daddy, daddy watch me!” And he’s watching, he’s with her, really watching, all of him that has grown large and aged and he remembers every beautiful part of him, still exists, in her. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Micheline Maylor Dr. Micheline Maylor was Calgary’s Poet Laureate 2016-18. Her latest poetry collection The Bad Wife (2021) won the BPAA Raymond Souster Award for best poetry in Alberta. Her previous collection Little Wildheart (U of Alberta Press)was long listed for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards. She recently won the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence in Alberta. She is a retired creative writing professor and has been recently translated into Farsi, Chinese, and Italian.