Where I'm from
Gabriella Jönsson
 
 
I hesitate, as always, at what to enter in "From:"
since where I came from might not be
where I'm going
It is not as simple as a "From:"/"To:" - there are
complex allegiances here
something to be said
finally
about who I am
 
I am a Swede
I am a Swede living in Scotland
I am originally a Swede
- but does originally mean I'm turning
turning into
something else
something more
or not returning?
 
I will never be
Scottish but
as I read the fine-print of the Scotsman's yearly writing competition
I figure
I might have a go
at being
a Scottish resident
 
And they want an address there, a town for me to identify with
This is a simple question for them
They want the town I live in
They want to put "Gabriella Jönsson from Stirling, Scotland"
but this is only partly true
Only partly true and doesn't even begin
to answer
the question of "from"
- the other year I was "from" Edinburgh
 
And I was born
at the university hospital
in Lund, and went "home"
to my parents' house
in Arlöv
and they moved to Östraby when I was fifteen and a half
and I moved in
with my grandfather
to study
in Malmö
 
My first degree
says Lund University
 
And the first apartment
that was all my own
was in Malmö, on Saarisvägen
but that was only after I
had lived, ill-advisedly or not,
in Ystad
for a while - my grandfather, for that matter
was born and raised
in this southernmost city
from where you take the ferry
to Bornholm, Denmark or further still
to Poland
Photo: Ben Kersley
Photo: Nicole R. Clayton