Burden of Beasts
A camel sees kaleidoscopic angles
from which to kill you. The camel
hides many funny weapons at funny angles
in its Swiss Army body. The camel
will not let you break her back.
The straw that breaks the camel’s back
comes long before the straw
that would have broken the camel’s back.
Over her heart, the camel builds
a tall ‘♥’ organ of keratin
to cook on the hot sand
as she sleeps, propping her up
and keeping her belly wind-blown.
It is called ‘the pedestal.’
It is unwise to put a camel on a pedestal
unless you are a camel.
A camel, with her four fangs
and bone-grinding mouth,
will swallow desiccated vines
with 6-inch thorns before her humps
even start to wither. Camel Jesus
would have eaten the crown right off his head.
Doctors don’t want you to know about this one simple trick for baby-smooth skin
Step 1: Tug tight at the lip of your belly button, counter-clockwise, in four circles.
That’s all.
Your navel interprets this as a signal of growth, of stretching too thin
and will knit you new skin as you sleep. You’ll wake up with a tummy
that would melt if it were any softer. Beg at this funnel every night,
it will never run out – it is the shape of how a mother leaves you.
Gather your blemished mammalian husk behind your back as it pools.
Tie it off in the morning. Tuck it into your shoe.
Related: 3 easy ways to remove a skin tag at home
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jamie Manias earned their MFA in poetry at Bowling Green State University, where they served as an assistant editor for Mid-American Review and wrote poems about microbiology. They now work with three lovely Heidelberg Windmills as an pressman at a letterpress shop, printing stationery and snarky greeting cards. Their work has been published in places such as The Kismet Magazine, Fruitslice, and Rat’s Ass Review. They can be found on Instagram at @jamiemanias.
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