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Petra, Jordon

December 2, 2016 Lorette C. Luzajic

It was the saddest horse, grey and weary, he could barely

hold me. I felt sorry, too, for the young man

who had taken the five dinar.

His mouth

was too full of teeth every which way,

even with some missing,

and his face was crooked and flattened and

hardened by the desert. He was

beautiful,

he had a wrangler-jeans kind

of swagger and

glittery obsidian eyes.

 

…

<Bedouin gir>l

 

Some of the women wear

heavy kohl on their eyes and

a darling little girl

holds a baby goat.

One dinar, please, she says in perfect English

when I snap her picture.

On a towel, another little girl sells pebbles and scraps. Her father

is behind her, up a ways,

with a hammer,

chipping them out of

the desert wall.

 

…

Beauty Rocks Petra
<Beauty Rocks Petra>
Camel caravan Petra
<Camel caravan Petra>
Jordan Bedouin rings
<Jordan Bedouin rings>

 

On their last legs, the horses took us

the last leg of our journey,

delivering us from the stark city that had been

chiseled from rocks. We had walked for hours over

ancient bones and stood

in tombs and pagan temples,

under an ageless boiling sun.

For us tourists,

the weather was perfect, but

locals said it wouldn’t rain

for six more months, at least, and that soon

it would reach 105 degrees.

I couldn’t imagine this place, how it would be.

These blazing rose gold rocks,

the camels covered in colours,

and bells, an enchanted world,

and the Bedouin jewels, molten metal melted over open fires,

these blue and carmine gems,

metal trinkets stirred in the dark.

 

…

Monastery
<Monastery>

 

Inside the cool and secret shroud of the earth,

this cave, carved

millennia past to the Nabean goddesses,

then, a monastery, made by monks.

When I in awesome wonder

consider all

the worlds thy hands have made…

We have climbed

we are weary

but here, at the top, this temple.

we sing.

 

Then sings my soul

how great Thou art

how great Thou art…

 

Our voices are pure like bells inside these walls.

We are tired, and spellbound

solemn,

ragged with psalms.

Mule Petra

• • •

Petra Rock

• • •

Rider Petra Jordan

• • •

Shop in Jordan

 

 

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About Lorette C. Luzajic

Lorette C. Luzajic is an artist and writer from Toronto, Canada, where she studied for a bachelor of arts in journalism from Ryerson University. She is the editor of The Ekphrastic Review: writing and art on art and writing at www.ekphrastic.net and the author of over fifteen books of poetry, fiction, and essays on art and culture. She has been published in hundreds of journals and blogs, including Rattle, Adbusters, Modern Poetry, Grain, the Fiddlehead, Book Slut, Everyday Fiction, the Wonder Café, White Wall Review, and more. Her short story was recently nominated for Best of the Net. She also incorporates literary themes, poetry, and text into her visual mixed media artwork, which has been exhibited and collected around the world. Visit her at www.mixedupmedia.ca.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: jordon

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