the camel
is always on my back
she always wants water
she comes in sweating from the summer
with her one tooth missing
huffing her bad breath on me
and airing out her hairy armpits
water, she says,
shaking her cloudy bottle at me
like i’m some kind of dealer
when i take it from her
she says, come on, fill it to the top this time
because i’ve been cheating her and we both know it
i’ve let her down
the camel
she has a big hunched back
everyone says that’s where she keeps it all
liquids, her life
while i fill her water bottle
i’m careful not to touch the top of it
like she’s got ebola or worse
i wonder if anyone’s ever fucked her
laid the camel on that big back of hers and went to town
humping and bumping
licking the space where that tooth used to be
got caught up in her mane of natty black hair
told her that she’s loved
when i give her back the bottle
she doesn’t even say thanks
just takes a drink right there under those hot lights
letting the good water spill out of her mouth
on her stained shirt and all over the floor
later, she says
before limping her way out of the front door
back to the concrete and glass-strewn desert
where she’ll walk another five miles
until the sun dips and another day commits suicide
leaving me here, thirsty
and in need of a shower
hungry for something more than she and i
ever got.
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