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