Barbecue
here, water does not run. instead it
sits obediently in old plastic containers
here, where monkey steals avocado
when window is open, here where
white jesus hangs from the cross and
weeps into the food, where father is a tree
and mother is an oil spill,
and aunties spawn to season each dish
with gossip and the Lord’s Prayer,
and minutes are two weeks long
and the clock betrays
and the cockerel plays with the children
before its descent into charcoal and oil
fire and brimstone
Maxine Sibihwana is a London-based poet and writer from Uganda. Her work explores themes of love, shame, and questioning religious rituals, and has been published in Notebook by MUBI, Die Quieter Please, AFREADA, Lolwe and the James Currey Anthology of African Literature. Maxine was a member of the 2024 Born:Free Writers’ Collective and is on the current cohort of the Emerging Writers Programme with the London Library.