Kay Corns

Freestyle

Anna doesn’t want to dive
she never does
but that’s the rule.

Me and Fale
we curl our toes
around the edge
of the pool

and watch as our spit
lands on the water

it always goes
like this as we wait
for the signal.

Jimmy says the man
with the stopwatch
likes to look
at our arses

but old people
stare at everything
that’s what they do.

When the Principal
steps up on the platform
no one talks any more

he raises his arm up
towards the sky
his finger on the trigger.

Anna hates the sound
it makes her lose
every race

but reminds me
of my Father
and his last straw

with the overtime
and lousy fucken marriage
then my mother
falling backwards into
the sink.

Fale is like a canoe on the water
her brown legs paddle hard
she doesn’t make a splash.

I pound the water
with my hook arms

I stay in my own lane
and never cross the
tape marked crime scene.

Jimmy says there’s a peephole
in the changing room

that he can see all our
arses real good.