---
title: The ocean overflows with camels
genre: verse

id: theoceanoverflowswithcamels
toc: "The ocean overflows with camels"

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    class: elegies
    order: 7
    prev:
    - title: Ars poetica
      link: arspoetica
    next:
    - title: The boar
      link: boar
...

| We found your [shirt][] deep in the dark water,
| caught on the clothesline of sleeping pills.
| Your head on the shore was streaming tears
| like sleeves or the coronas of saints saved
| from fire.  The burning bush began crying
| like a child who misses his mother.  Traffic
| slammed shut like an eye.  God's mean [left hook][]
| knocked us out, and we began swimming.
| Bruises bloomed like algae on a lake.
| Your [father][] beat your chest and screamed
| for someone to open a window.  The air
| stopped breathing.  Fish clogged its gills.
| Birds sang too loudly, trying to drown out
| your father's cries, but all their sweetness
| was not enough.  No polite noises will be made
| anymore, he told us, clawing your breastbone.
| He opened your heart to air again.  Camels
| flowed from you both like water from the rock.
| God spoke up, but nobody listened to him.
| We hung you up on the line to dry.

[shirt]: lovesong.html
[left hook]: roughgloves.html
[father]: angeltoabraham.html