Damn Thirsty

You know how you used to know something really well?  You knew it like the back of your hand, then you grew up and you forgot about it.  But suddenly something jostles that trunk where it's stored in the cobwebbiest corner of your mind, like under a tarp, and it pops open and you go, "Hey, I used to know that!  Wow!" There must be a scientific name for this phenomenon.  I even remember it occurring at the tender age of five when it consistently blew my mind to realize that bugs lived in the ground.  Now I feel that way when I read about buffalo (i.e., "Buffalo? Aren't they extinct? Is that the same thing as a bison? Oh, they still exist? Phew, glad to hear it!"). 

Anyway, a friend of mine sent me something I feel like I read before.  It's vaguely familiar, and all the time I'm reading it I'm kicking myself for ever forgetting it.  It's about a fish:

First
The fish needs to say,
‘Something ain’t right about this
Camel ride-

And I’m
Feeling so damn
Thirsty.’

I didn't write this poem.  Hafez did.  But I am the fish.  I know my friend feels like she is the fish.  Maybe you are, too.  And maybe you just woke up and you looked around and thought hmm something's . . . fishy.  (Sorry, it wrote itself.)  How did I get on this camel?  Fish aren't supposed to go on camels!  Who booked this ticket? 

And also, why are some of the best poems about fish? (see: Elizabeth Bishop)