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Night Swimming

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 5 months ago

 

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.

The photograph on the dashboard,

taken years ago,

Turned around backwards

so the windshield shows.

Every streetlight reveals

the picture in reverse.

Still, it’s so much clearer.

I forgot my shirt at the water’s edge.

The moon is low tonight.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.

I’m not sure all these people understand.

It’s not like years ago,

The fear of getting caught,

Of recklessness and water.

They cannot see me naked.

These things, they go away,

Replaced by everyday.

Nightswimming, remembering that night.

September’s coming soon.

I’m pining for the moon.

And what if there were two

Side by side in orbit

Around the fairest sun?

That bright, tight forever drum

Could not describe nightswimming.

You, I thought I knew you.

You I cannot judge.

You, I thought you knew me,

this one laughing quietly

underneath my breath.

Nightswimming.

The photograph reflects,

Every streetlight a reminder.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night,

deserves a quiet night.

 

Video


There are so many verses in this song that ring true:

The photograph taken years ago

Still it's so much clearer - (than my memory)

I’m not sure all these people understand. - (if you hadn't lived at KP, you wouldn't know how crazy this was)

It’s not like years ago, - (times have changed, we have gotten older)

The fear of getting caught, - (by the guards at KP)

Of recklessness and water. - (we were being reckless for once in our time at KP)

These things, they go away, - (go away with time)

Replaced by everyday. - (replaced by the cares and responsibilities of our everyday lives)

Nightswimming, remembering that night. - (I'll never forget that night)


During the spring of our senior year at KP, we all had a sense of this was the end of a great time in our lives. Somehow we sensed that we would soon lose our close friends as we went off to our new jobs. We spent a lot more time just hanging out together, visiting each other in our rooms at night. We didn't want the good times to end. Sure there would be other good times in our future, but they would be different. Such is life.

 

We were smart then, at least in the sense of book learning. We had yet to learn the ways of the world. I'm mad sometimes that I have forgotten all that text book knowledge. I could relearn in, but for what purpose now. I have continued to learn new things, like Smalltalk.

 

Describe the company structure, officers and midshipman officers, plebe indoctrination, bracing, walking 6 inches from bulkheads, sitting on edge of chairs, describe the mess hall, setting tables, the music that they played, making us plebes sing the We gotta get out of this place song, colors and playing in the band each day, walking to class, the cold wind blowing off the sound.

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