The Vibrant Channeled Creator

After walking almost 1700 miles across the heart of the Australian outback, Davidson and her camels arrived at the Indian Ocean. Never having seen a body of water larger than a puddle before, her camels were mesmerized. (Photo by Rick Smolan/Against All Odds Productions)

Padded Knees

Tamanrasset

by Rosalind Brackenbury

On account of my knees
I thought a camel would be appropriate:
I could be helped on
and eventually off again.
Have you ever
got on a camel?
They go down for you
on their own padded knees
and close their eyes while they wait
for you to be set in place,
like priests waiting for all the communicants
to be done, in some high church.
Then they rise, tipping you,
heaving beneath you
but you don’t fall,
you are suddenly
feet up in the air,
carried forward on the long sway
of their stride.
They will carry you across deserts,
across days and datelines
until you arrive one far-off day
in the city of Tamanrasset
where you have been waiting all your life
to go.

“Tamanrasset” by Rosalind Brackenbury from Bonnard’s Dog. © Hanging Loose Press, 2015. Reprinted with permission.