together this orange; from
the mandarins’ testament
in the sink, a segment of
the new globe unpeels in
my mind. Each bulletin pip
picked like a memory from
the pulp of what remains:
earth in earth. In earth, in a
dream, a golem’s hand
lopsided, half buried like a
stem from a glass, half of
an inert ritual. Keeping
house, his fingers churned
the clay; gulleting in the
tall grass, the fat egrets
waited by the stream for
their sweet breads; in the
wind blue was the tang
from a piece of seed. As I
remembered his image
from the page he unshapes
it; like silt in a river that
returns to dust, he is
displaced. Zest from a
tangerine or a clementine;
Taiwan, Tangier. Like men
each world opens with a
knife; inside I find a sweet
receipt, its paper slip, the
word I do not know
anymore—what had he
said to me: Prodigal, what
were your wanderings
about
JAY G YING currently studies medicine at the University of Edinburgh. His prose-poetry has appeared in The Adroit Journal, where he now works as a prose reader. He was chosen to be part of Umbrellas of Edinburgh: Poetry and Prose Inspired by the Scotland’s Capital City in 2016. He has previously lived in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and the United States.
I am delighted to be one of the winners... I really appreciate the PBS’s mission to champion contemporary poetry, having been a keen follower of the TS Eliot Prize and the New Generation series. I think that the Student Poetry Prize is especially rewarding because it works to help young poets early on in their careers. As a student it is exciting to see this level of support offered. I find poetry often thrives within student communities, and I think this prize does well to recognise the importance of engaging and inspiring young writers.
- Jay G Ying