Written piece
Our Orchestra
Ishimwe Tebuye
Tanzania
About this piece
My submission is a poem called “Our Orchestra”. It is inspired by how Commonwealth members, like musical instruments in an orchestra, cooperate to make a unified impact. I have sewn together cultural instruments into an orchestra to complement the theme “thread”.
OUR ORCHESTRA.
I’m sitting on a back seat in class,
my teacher is teaching Geography,
he pulls out, a rolled poster
unfolded it reveals a flag,
that’s what my desk mate says.
I take a look,
my eyes tell me a different story,
no, I mean my ears,
I don’t see the flag, I just hear.
A humming Tanzanian ngoma drum,
making nations move their waists and arms.
London violin strings, glided in turns,
leaving a memory of perfected legacy.
Shiny steel pans of the Caribbean,
polishing hearts, with an everlasting glow.
The Tabla rumbles, all the way from Delhi,
crossing constellations, making justice among us grow.
My teacher moves me to a front seat,
but the music gets even more tranquil,
creating audible images in my brain,
I hear golden notes,
like fireworks in the midnight sky
celebrating cultures and remarkable traces of history.
It is our orchestra;
the Commonwealth orchestra.
Don’t they hear?