My name is Tunde Ciroma, friends call me Somto...,
I was born with no spoon, neither silver, gold nor bronze...
My home was just a hollow, it was just a ghetto...
There I lived my life marooned, exposed to james and johns.
Time to go to school arrived, and there was none in my neighborhood...
And even there was to be my parents had no money...
Then I resigned myself to fate, I will thus till adulthood...
For then I was so sure, this was my destiny.
One morning papa said to me, son you would go to school...
School at last, I leaped for joy, then I was ten...
But papa you have no money I asked, or are we now in Istanbul?...
No said papa free school is now a rule.
Today is the day to go to school, papa held me by the hand...
If I took my bath or not, that I remember not at all...
Slates in hand, clothes oversize, I and papa left the hinterland...
For tomorrow beckons and we must answer the call...
For I said to myself, if I finish school, tomorrow will be better.
Now I am done with school, tomorrow is even farther,
After trekking long distances, tommorow is still distant...
If you come from where I came, then you know life is a constant adventure...
For tomorrow to be better, I need to be persistent.
If you see tomorrow arrive late...
Please do not blame me...
And if you must blame please blame my fate...
For is it not clear the odds are against me?
©darlington
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