She would bellow out instructions

that ricocheted over our heads,

smeared the pool walls

with angry incoherence.

Her eyes were a shark’s.

Cold as the deep end.

That first, breath-stealing plunge

to retrieve the rubber brick.

‘A sudden severe stomach ache’

or ‘flu-like symptoms’

were Monday morning lifelines

every one of us would flounder for.

Though I tried to fight it down

(… a road accident, children.),

when the head told us my heart

rose like a float in the water.