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