The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Upon Unwrapping a Handmade Stuffed Camel Toy, by Lorette C. Luzajic

12/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Crochet Camel, by Karen Joy Martin (Canada). 2017.


Upon Unwrapping a Handmade Stuffed Camel Toy

How do you gracefully unravel candy cane wrapping tissue, pry it loose from a stuffed camel? It is Christmas, and our glasses are full of cheer on the corner of a bar, and I am wedged in between Karen and  her husband. Blessed, with such besties. There has been already chocolate, and chocolate tea, and Merlot, pressed back into a gift bag, pushed down with our boots under the countertop. Now it is this, a hand-knit toy, my favourite animal, the camel.  Right here, the  crochet dromedary is absurd and beautiful and the best gift I have ever received. 

I have built myself into something stronger, I have reached past death and darkness for light and life and I have disposed all those demons that possessed me,  but face to face with this bactrian boy, I crumple for a moment into tears. We had emerged, thirty or so moments before, from a candlelit carol service, where I sat dry eyed through two hours of exquisite sonatas celebrating the greatest story ever told. The Magnificat, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the old man with pop out ears singing his heart out in front of me. Through all this more,  I held my composure. Oh, yes, I readily confess it, that for awhile now, I've prided myself on feeling nothing. I have found salvation in negation. But here in my hands is the same love that crocheted a pale blue owl for the daughter of a girl who used to share my mirror. Here is that same nativity story, two millennia after the fact, this toothy, gypsy queen of the desert that carried wiser men and frankincense. The story, knit by Christ and Karen, love manifest without question for a sinner like me.

Lorette C. Luzajic

Lorette C. Luzajic is a Toronto, Canada based writer and mixed media visual artist. Her poetry and stories have appeared widely in journals, blogs, magazines, and online publications, including Taxicab Mag, The Fiddlehead, Rattle, Grain, The White Wall Review, Peacock Journal, and Workman Arts Ledger. Her artwork was exhibited this year in Tunisia, where she made friends with many camels, and in Mexico, too. Lorette is the founding editor of The Ekphrastic Review. www.mixedupmedia.ca
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY
    This site uses cookies to deliver your best navigation experience this time and next. Continuing here means you consent to cookies. Thank you.
    Join us on Facebook:
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead