Camels

(They say a camel’s

A horse designed by a committee

But I might say a horse

Is a camel designed by the same group

Who forgot to factor in the slow internal release of water)

(In the Bestiary)

Where do camels belong?

By  the millions with us

Lords of arid places

Plodders and racers -

We’ve made them ships, race-horses

Beauties in our eyes

Too easy answers:

Water in those humps?

They spit in our eyes!

Centuries of trade routes

Caravans of precious goods

Most precious: culture

All in an eyeblink

Compared with that long epoch 

Of perfect wildness,

The trials and errors

Stochastic percentages

Of changing climate

The savage seasons

Probed, tested blood and sinew

Left the wind-picked bones

Way out in the Gobi

The Bactrian survivors

No wild Dromedaries

Delicate cousins

On cold Andean slopes

Skittishly survive

Yet  into the dry

Of the endless interior

Of Australia

Camels have escaped

Planted their wild imprint far

From human control