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Camel time
Mercedes Webb-Pullman (IIML, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

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It was unexpected, I have to say
coming down the Humpty Dumptys
on the way home from town
and there they were
.
padding past Bob McGuire’s
mares paddock,
strung out in a line –
five camels
.
three big,
one with a man on
and two smaller, darker than the others
then I was up the other side, and gone.
.
Everyone saw a different number
even Euan, who pastured them that night
wasn’t sure how many there were
or where they were going.
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Some said the camel herder
had flowing Arab gowns
but for me he was
just a stockman.
.
Nothing really happened
except, in the way we keep track of time
things occurred that we recalled
with camels.
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Talk of water tanks, the need
to fill them immediately
or watch them blow away
and someone will say
.
‘Look at Jeff’s tank!
Fluffy had to duck
when it blew down to the river
that time the camels came.’
.
When carp first appeared
amongst the trout,
when the fire brigade burned
the koala colony,
.
when the Badja’s
old growth forests
were logged by mistake,
all camel time now.
.
The Folk Festival when
the chick who gave good head
below the campfire, by the river
turned out to be a bloke,
.
the time the camels came to Numeralla.

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Mercedes has taken her MA from Victoria University Wellington NZ and rubbed it. We may never see her again but her words can be found in Turbine 2008 and 2010, Reconfigurations 2009, 4th Floor 2009 and 2010, and many issues of Danse Macabre. Also in chalk on unexpected pavements.

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