The Song of the Camels

Not born to the forest are we
Not born to the plain
To the grass and the shadowed tree
And the splashing of rain
Only the sand we know
And the cloudless sky
The mirage and the deep-sunk well
And stars on high

To the sound of our bells we came
With huge soft stride
Kings riding upon our backs
And the slaves at our side
Out of the East drawn on
By a dream and a star
Seeking the hills and the groves
Where the fixed towns are

Our goal was no palace gate
No temple of old
But a child in his mother's lap
In the cloudy cold
Thе olives were windy and whitе
Dust swirled through the town
As all in their royal robes
Our masters knelt down

Then back to the desert we paced
In our phantom state
And faded again in the sands
That are secret as fate
Portents of glory and danger
Our dark shadows lay
At the feet of the babe in the manger
And then drifted away