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

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    css: 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