Headspace: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department write about a place or space they go to write, read, study or create. [Read all entries.]  [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.]

St. Lucia

On weekdays or weekends, placidity,
which dares not come to light before midnight
in the Pearl of the Orient, yet, before dusk
decorously pervades this tranquil space.

There is neither an arcade, nor a metro station,
nor a bar-lined street. The nearest supermarket, whose
ubiquity is presumed in my hometown,
is 2.4 kilometres away in Toowong.

The quietude, nevertheless, never induced in me
boredom. It facilitated the fermentation
of my habit of reading. Hustle and bustle
suspended, time was filled by my first sip
of Charles Dickens and Maya Angelou.

From time to time, the Skype chats
of my American-Pakistani housemate next door
reminded me I was also thousands of kilometres away
from home. But was this place merely exotic?
‘Come back soon,’ my regarded kin-to-be sobbed
when I did too.

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Janet Lau is a graduate of the Department of English and Department of Education (Class of 2016). [Click here to read all entries by Janet.]