Jessica Parkinson, a member of Student PEN, was born in Malawi and brought up in Canada. She studied International Development and Women’s Studies in Peterborough, Ontario and has lived in such places as Ghana and Penghu. She is now settled in Kilcreggan on the west coast of Scotland, in a house that has been in her family for five generations. Jessica writes poetry and is currently completing a first novel. She draws on her search for home for inspiration.
Distant
So much like a man sitting straight backed
under the maple, red and yellow
the colours of the temple on Shili
beach bent like a sleeping dog, long legged
headland of black volcanic rock, a ribbed hill with sea grass
you sank into. You would not speak of origins, yet
as we made for home, leaving
momentary prints on the sea wall,
I knew you were also foreign.
Now the maple moves like a dragon
in this northern land, coyotes call -
you can neither answer them.
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