Tjawangwa said this of her poem:
This text was produced out of digital fieldwork which informed my 2020 Quay Words summer residency. One of the things I was afraid I would miss out on with a digital residency was the very local and human voice but thankfully through technology we can approximate some of what a conversation in person accomplishes. I spoke to and was spoken to and now hope this poem speaks with many voices. As much a socially distanced conversation as it is any other form, this poem contends with and embraces what Bayo Akomolafe calls a ‘crisis in form’ born of ‘the indeterminacy of things’.

I planned from the outset to incorporate contributions from interlocutors connected to the city of Exeter. Still, in the end the poem chose its own form, this public grappling with distance and proximity. What good there is here owes a debt to Clare Heath, Isabella Quinn, Helen, Tracey Fuller, Helen Hartstein, James Turner, Octavius, and Kitiara Pascoe for their generosity; their willingness in this time of isolation to come ‘out’ and play.