Downstream

did in 2006. The stick moves,
ever so slightly, downstream.
The next morning it’s a
cloudy 13 degrees when Josie
Arnold from the Plough
drives me to Buscot Lock,
close to where Lewis Pugh
and Charlie Wittmack began
their record-breaking swims.
During the recent heatwave
Josie jumped in the Thames
one night to cool off, as many
people do, but she says she’d
only ever do it with a friend,