Written piece
A Poem for Commonwealth Quilt
Sekhar Banerjee
India
About this piece
The poem stitches everyday life in Kolkata with scenes from other parts of the world to show shared human experiences across distance. Despite distance and difference, people are connected through similar moments, habits and emotions, forming a human 'quilt' of shared existence.
Each Life a Patch, Each Dream a Stitch
Past Eden Gardens and the Maidan,
sunlit streets of Kolkata unfurl.
The Hooghly runs by busy cricket camps.
Voices rise in the bazaar’s hum,
like morning tea when the day’s just begun.
Across oceans evening settles
in streams of cars, red taillights glowing.
Streetlamps rise one by one.
Night gathers like an old quilt,
studded with small suns.
From distant shores to neighbours close,
in every tongue, a closeness grows.
Faces unseen, yet hearts stay knit,
each life a patch, each dream a stitch.