Studenthood

Here I come with hopes and dreams larger than the ocean

But I only hope, that my goals don't get buried beneath the sea-cean

I have come to conquer the brains, the books and the pen

I do come to build the stairs, the tables and the facade

To be the most bearded and hairless amongst books men

"Go my child!" Perhaps that's from the African gods

"You are blessed" mayhap the will of the Ancient of days

"I have your legs" could be the devil's pods

But the mind would move as leers in Mays

While hope is hung in the air for good jumpers

This is a journey of the hail of summer morn

Counterpoised with hurrying feet of every dawn 

Wherefore sweat is the oil for chewing books

The main gate leads to prison for tomorrow's freedom

The sun ray is for enlivenment and man's hooks

Men have read books, but Africans don't read

I wonder how we blossom with books in rooms as hot as a furnace

Yet, Africans abroad have brains that leave on the whites, grimace

I am a black man and I'm proud of that feed

I would not rather be in another place

Stories have never been swords that massacre the listeners

So, go close to your lecturers; one day the lion will smile

Then you'd know that their hearts glisten than they appear to onlookers

And their secrets of grooming fruitful pens as covetedly worthwhile

Would become the light for your limping legs 

Remember your books

Even as his words waken your womanhood

And tells you of how he can make the world in the university be at your food

Or help you override some pedagogical insistence

In this era of political absurdity, don't add intellectual subservience

Remember your books

And remember where you come from

Everyone can't wear long sleeves, find your equal and allow the hooks

Insisting you must be identified may lead you to dried bones and blood

Tears won't become flood on your crossing the bar

Remember your books

Even as you allow your focus on the mirage of rose

Cause times shall come when the campus shall become irritating and sing of woes

This illusive rose shall then give you the synergy to move with the nooks

It's better to be in furnace in Africa than to be a slave for the whiteman 

Remember your books

For no land of greatness has been built without blood

Keep your wings too, sometimes the body needs chill brooks

To water your story of the flowers

But be careful, else it ruins you like this flower ruined Helen of Troy

Remember your books

Even more, remember to guard your inner peace

For the restless soul is worse than the soul in the Danielan furnace

And restlessness in man is the absence of peace from the acquirement

In fact, this road is a boulevard of nunnery...

Comr. Thomas Oko

Content created and supplied by: Tomclassic (via Opera News )