Absence of Water

Absence of Water
In the Thirties London's outdoor lidos were at the peak of their popularity.

Gradually tastes have changed, resulting in a drop in attendances,

leaving the pools uneconomical to run.

Many fell into decay and many were demolished.

Only a handful of pools remain today as a symbol of a bygone era.

Poem

Without hard work from this site

I imagine movement in other dimensions

I feel coolness and roundness of nude bodies

touching themselves in the frank gesture of the game

I feel the sun, the water, the voices, the dive

I do not feel the time

hiding in the small wave

that is broken off the face of the curly-haired child

crying surprise and already wrapped

in the embrace of her mother's outstretched arms

I feel the fluidity of the water

melting with the excited screams of the adolescents

the fulfilled faces of the men afloat

the sensual stroke of the swimmer

the light speeches of warm summer

I myself, feel the need to take a swim!

Now I turn around and I try to reveal in the city this ancestral aquifer's feeling

(I would love you to give me a swimming pool!)

thoughts of a citizen who is looking for his local swimming bath.

the sport, the meeting place, the community.........

behind this is the simple but magical contact with water.

This contact that rips away from the mayhem of the city evoking

a moment of pause, a sultry summer afternoon, another time,

another place.

Plunging into the amniotic fluids of secure liberty.

Here, every man need to take a dip.

GIGI CIFALI

WWW.GIGICIFALI.COM