Every treasure starts as something ordinary...

Wooden Giraffe

There are a whole herd of you

waiting to migrate.

Some of you are knee-high,

some shoulder height,

some too tall to be practical;

all of you are born

with one thought in mind.

Silently, you gather in your ranks

your eyes burned in by searing coals.

Sightless, you stand to attention,

and wait.

Your legs are too spindly,

your necks are too long,

exaggerated to enhance your appeal.

The visitors arrive.

Suddenly, you have value,

pawed at, oohed over, stroked.

This momentous day

you will realise your ambitions

as purchases are made.

You bear the indignity of bubble wrap,

of tape and brown paper.

You mean nothing in the land of your birth,

no-one would have you at their hearths,

but now,

packaged by a traveller

you are raised from invisibility,

metamorphosed

from “a piece of touristy crap”

to a treasured memento of a dream,

a holiday in Deepest Darkest Africa.

Inspiration

Growing up in Zimbabwe, I became used to seeing ranks of hand carved wooden giraffes standing outside craft stalls. Local people rarely bought them, yet visitors eagerly carried them home. It made me wonder how something dismissed as ordinary in one place could become a treasured reminder of another.

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AI Declaration

AI was used solely to create the accompanying artwork.

No AI was used in the writing of this poem.

Wooden Giraffe is a reflective contemporary poem by Catherine Knee exploring travel, souvenirs, value, belonging and perspective through vivid symbolic imagery.

Wooden Giraffe

A Reaping

I Watched You Crumble

Catherine Knee