The Rope Artist


Lorette C. Luzajic

 

It is his hands that bound me first, the intricate way the strange slender fingers skated along the seams, how they seemed to tangle at the button eye, intent in concentration, then come undone, dancing down to spool and skein. I watched him work the fabric, furrowing, smoothing, the fine needle sliver through satin ribboning up and down my spine. I had never been tied down, or tied up, but there I was, tethered by the tips of his thumbs and the bead of sweat on his upper lip as if by a red silk cord. I paid for the garment repairs, saved his name on the slip and eventually went back with an invitation. Later, he would caress the arch of my foot before binding it against the other, weave me in shibari in a position of prayer. His hands worked the spaces between the skin and the rope, tenderly from tip to toe, as if I was a treasure.

 


Lorette C. Luzajic writes small fictions, with recent publications in Trampset, Unbroken, JMWW, Cleaver, New Flash Fiction Review, The Dillydoun Review, and more. Her work has been nominated for Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and four times each for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is the founding editor of The Ekphrastic Review, a journal devoted to literature inspired by visual art.

 

 


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