San Francisco's resplendent regalia! A poem by Thomas Rogers Muyunga Mukasa

A royal jewel curved in blue Pacific waters,
women, men, girls and boys quench their thirst,
wharfs and jetties excite an onlooker;
welcoming foyers and open arms greeting a visitor.

An urban city and metro-artifact;
the eye for a trowel or spade takes in time,
a discerning quest reveals past-present-future,
a gaze from Bernal Heights reveals a scenic feature.

Art, social life, a Divine spirituality and sculpture its fabric;
buoyed by generous, committed patronage,
an excellent scale of membership,
matched only by the plethora of social services.

Its earth, a jutting horn fragile and precious,
ever standing the taste of time and clime;
thick fog, bitter winds, earthquakes and other elements,
but nothing beats the resolve of its inhabitants.

The esteemable inhabitants command stature and move hurriedly,
graffiti and vandalism pock their faces intermittently,
a klaxon-blaring truck speeds to a destination somewhere,
a homeless inhabitant fatigued after a long day finds a coveted shelter. 

The fruits of work revealed in so much;
the highways, airport, tenements and parks,
Hunters' Point naval shipyard, street car squeals,
memorable landmarks, with the Golden gate for a crown.



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Thomas Rogers Muyunga Mukasa (pen name: Tom Mukasa), currently lives in San Francisco, CA. There he is attached to the UCSF HIV division's Community Advisory Board as a volunteer reviewer. He has worked for over 15 years with the marginalized and people living with HIV/Aids/TB in Africa. He also spent most of his time training and following up 152 groups he helped organize into what he termed the 'anti-poverty' class. The 'anti-poverty' class is that class a step or two shy of middle-class. Three greatest moments he recalls were a child headed family able to successfully pay for the land and house their late parents had left behind. They were to be evicted but it did not happen. The children went on to complete high school. The second moment was of a mother living with HIV establishing a chicken poultry farm 8 miles outside of Kampala, Uganda. She saw all her four children complete university. The third was of a woman in her late 20's who havin
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