Written piece
Woven by many Hands
Alvin Michael Mukuye
Uganda
About this piece
My poem, Woven by many Hands, follows the lives of different individuals in the commonwealth. The Commonwealth holds one of the largest cultural platforms and it is from here that people travel, explore learn and inherit parts of themselves.
Woven by many Hands.
A gentleman sits down to have a meal,
A plate of spicy chicken curry and basamati rice,
A fork on his left and a knife to his right,
A cup of Chai tea in the bright afternoon sun,
A celebratory meal after a fruitful meeting.
“Papa! May you teach me how to make ugali and nyama choma?”
A kitchen filled with smoke,
A false smoke detection alarm,
A father directs is precious daughter on how achieve the perfect roast,
Much pride in his heart,
His daughter choosing his roots to share as her school ethnicity assignment.
“What was the colour of the trousers you brought in?”
A visibly confused tailor questions the boy who came in for a resizing,
“A plate of jerk chicken to go please.”
An Aussie freezing to the bone in October requests,
From her local cookshop,
All to have a taste of her summer holiday once more.
The Commonwealth has never been about borders on a map,
India, Pakistan and Great Britain for lunch,
Kenya for a school assignment in New Zealand,
Jamaica for an savoury reminiscence on a gloomy Canadian day,
The beautiful linkage of different cultures so perfectly,
This is the Common Wealth.
By Alvin Michael Mukuye.