JOAQUINA, PARCENT



My posting of the poem and image of the ‘Sierra del Carrascal’ encouraged my good friend Nick Clark to send me two of his many lovely drawings of the village. Nick and his extended family have been coming to Parcent on holiday for many years and some of my happiest memories of summer are of the times we all spent together. The poem I have chosen to accompany Nick’s drawings is in memory of one of my first neighbours in Parcent, Joaquina, who I will always recall sitting in the sunshine on her doorstep, chatting with my toddlers.






Joaquina, Parcent


Slanting sun creeps under washhouse eaves,

casts twigged shadow on water scoured stone,

warms ridged spine and cotton wisp hair.



Joaquina washes, sparrow framed,

paper skin, plum stained, vein traced hands

pummel wool in nature’s numbing softener.



Back hunched, rheumy gaze steadfast,

rhythmic plunging, scrubbing, wringing,

mind wandering, memories flooding as water flows.



Face furrowed like river carved rock,

hooded eyes blink into sunlight.

Hauls to arthritic hip her waterlogged load.



Painstakingly, step by dogged step,

eighty years of resistance meanders

the cobbled climb home.



Blankets dance on rooftop terrace

as sun flushed breeze billows,

swathes Joaquina's restful sleep.




© 2017 Jacqueline Claire Knight.  All rights reserved. 





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