camel take me there
when I was a child
I did not want a pony
like everyone else
was wanting, no,
I wanted a camel
why a camel? they asked
because it is tall, I answered
and it has a hump full of water
and going in the desert
it waddles side to side
and you can feel
like you are on a boat at sea
which you would never feel
on a pony
what I really wanted
was a boat like
the owl and the pussycat
and it would sway
side to side like a camel
in the desert and whether
desert or sea there would be
so many stars
each night the stars
would sizzle and sing
and sometimes one
would drop all the way
down to the feet of the camel
and splash in the sea
I would catch
a few drops and
save them in a tiny jar
which I kept under
the seat of the boat
in a special box
named a secret name
and it would only open
when I said that name
and each morning
I would forget
to remember that name
and the camel
was silent
and so
I knew
my elixir of stardrops
was safe in its box
in the boat
in the sea full of stars.
Kyla Houbolt writes, mostly poems, though she is old enough to know better. Words in Barren Magazine, Kissing Dynamite, Neologism Poetry, Burning House/Arsonista, and elsewhere. Best of the Net nominee 2019. You can find most of her current work at her Link Tree, here: https://linktr.ee/luaz_poet and follow her on Twitter @ luaz_poet.
Chris Benjamin is the author of three award-winning fiction and nonfiction books and short stories published in journals and anthologies across Canada and in the UK. He’s on leave from his role as managing editor of Atlantic Books Today, a triannual magazine about Atlantic Canadian books, to be writer in residence for the South Shore Public Libraries in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. He snapped the camel shot on a 2006 trip to the Gobi Desert. Website: chrisbenjaminwriting.com Twitter: @benjaminwrites
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