One Rich Man in Ten

Barton Springs Early Morning Swim Report 3/25/2025

The cold mornings are over till fall, I fear: it’s in the 60s before sunrise. I’ve been back at Barton Springs since Saturday, after a month away: me traveling, Barton Springs being closed for its annual cleaning. I don’t blame either of us.

This morning in the dark I tried to take a picture of the glorious crescent moon. Instead, I got a pretty good portrait of a garbage can.

The deck seemed particularly crowded at 6AM. A couple of men swimming abreast discussed sandwiches, homemade sourdough vs. Central Market tortillas. Once I was in, things turned comfortingly primordial. I couldn’t see many other swimmers, and it was dark for almost all my swim, just pinking at the horizon when I left. That’s one of the things I missed, when I was swimming in ordinary pools in March. No horizon line.

I have not been here nor anywhere on social media lately. What is there to say, when it is very clear that people in the government love oppression. They love oppressing people and are looking for new ways to do it and new populations to do it to. They do not care about human pain; or rather, they are deeply interested in human pain, especially the pain of trans people, people of color, and immigrants.

Do you know those fools took down the page about Jackie Robinson’s military service? Jackie Robinson, as exact an illustration of the word meritocracy, which they claim to believe in?

I am trying to look for the horizon, my friends. This morning I saw a heron, and the Egyptian geese. As I headed to the stairs out, a man on the deck called out to two friends, a middle-aged man and woman, who were swimming abreast. They exchanged greetings.

Then the swimming man, not quietly but not showing off, began to sing “Satisfied Mind.” I have always loved this song. He sang all of it. Clear. Not fancy. Every verse. It might be my favorite ever version of it.