The great fish swallowed Jonah

like any old piece of plastic

that thickens/sickens the sea.

For three days and nights

the foreign body indigestible

crowded up the marine gut

until God, rich in compassion,

took pity on the whale

and sent a dove with tickling wings

to brush the back of the baleen throat

and kickstart the redemptive instinct

of bringing up.

So out came all the junk

on a dirty beach in Assyria