Late Arrival
Or a poem written after happening upon my name in The Herald
“Even the familiar can be a foreign place.”
I want to tell you about a late arrival.
How when I entered, smiling at the door,
she asked: are you the delivery driver?
I want to tell you, how I was delivering myself,
how she read my body — foreign in that place.
How although my name was on the bill,
and my books upon the shelf, my body out of place.
I want to tell you about The Nature Poet.
I want to tell you about the wine glass laden table,
an antique border between each of our bodies.
I want to tell you about the house, a great house,
a house which brick by brick was born
from the blood of slaves,
in a new town born from death.
Its high ceilings, grand staircase,
how they penned great myths.
I want to tell you how over candle light,
The Nature Poet needed me to clarify,
the order of my languages:
English, Spanish, English, Spanish - what comes first?
I want to tell you all the times
I have been foreign in this place,
a place so familiar to me (nearly since birth).
I want to tell you of my body, floating freely in the sea.
I want to tell you of my body, running through the harr.
I want to name for you the gorse and heather,
thistle and corbie, I’d strip the willow if only to prove—
I want to tell you how I will always be a late arrival.
I want to tell you how I will always be foreign (here).
Young smiling man standing at your door:
Are you the delivery driver? Do you know where you’re going?
Are you lost? Can I help you? What comes first?
Are you here to build or are you here to destroy?
The fiddlers are standing by the shore.
More and more, they are arriving
in their finest garb.
Music playing loudly,
tongues of fire hang above them.
And me, I’m still standing at your door:
I’m sorry I’ve come so late, but won’t you let me in?
Notes:
The opening line is an approximation of a quote from the novelist Tash Aw, as said during a Q&A at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025.
If you are in a position to support, I am highlighting two important fundraising efforts. Firstly, Refuweegee (here in Scotland) which is a community-led charity that gives people a way to welcome and embrace those newest to arrive. Secondly, I am continuing to ask your support for Suhail and His Family in Gaza. Now more than ever we must come together to support those in Gaza and wider Palestine.