Warm baths on cold nights.
Sea flowing between sunburnt toes.
Spraying siblings with a hose.
Catching minnows in the canal.
Drifting on park ponds.
Bombing friends at the lido.
Wild swimming in northern lakes.
Today, these former joys have evaporated.
Wading through the rising slurry, I splash my way from the front room to the staircase.
Photographs held high above my head, I cry like a water baby.
Tears adding to the devastation.
Originally published: Paragraph Planet
