Blue Plastic Pool, poetry written by Kelli J Gavin at Spillwords.comBlue Plastic Pool, poetry written by Kelli J Gavin at Spillwords.com

Blue Plastic Pool

Blue Plastic Pool

written by: Kelli J Gavin

@KelliJGavin

 

My mother sat for hours in the front yard
She would pull a folding lawn chair
Up to the edge of the blue plastic pool
Positioning her sunglasses that she had saved
From her last jaunt to Hawaii in the late 60’s
On top of her head
A tiara resting on her beautiful black short curly hair
She was generous with the sun oil
That always seemed to glisten on her arms

Once her feet entered that icy hose filled pool
My sister and I knew she should be left alone
Silence prevailed until she slowly removed her feet
Mom would towel dry one and then the other
She then stood next to pool always studying the water
In the late summer I finally asked why she loved that pool

Her answer came slowly as she removed her dark lenses
“That pool is a refuge.
I remember an ocean that I will never see again
I pretend that pool is water surrounding Hawaii
No other land that I can see
Even for a few moments it is him and I on the beach.”
The HIM was Norman Allen Kaluhiokalani
The man she thought she would one day marry

My mother didn’t marry Norman
She returned to Minnesota and then married my father
Norman and my mother lost touch over the years
My mother spoke of the water and the waves
Of body surfing and eating fish on the beach
Of time spent in a sandy hut with the man of her dreams
More often in her final days his name fell from her lips
Norman Allen Kaluhiokalani

Now when I swim in my large ever so blue pool
I often think of my mom and her refuge
Of her Hawaiian waters
Of sunglasses worn the last time she saw the man she dreamed of

Whether it is a pool or lake or the ocean in the gulf
I will always remember fondly a folding lawn chair
Pulled up to the edge of a blue plastic pool

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