POEM: CHANGES
POET: FESTUS HARDING (PEN)
Wake up in the morning then I ask myself
Is life worth living or should I blast myself
Society is like boy go fuck yourself
Everyday we wake up less than ourselves
The only changes we see is from dust to mud
The street is full with blood
Grab the gun or sword
Their system is chasing us for drug
But they are the fucking lords
Pretty nitty perfect tricks
That is their manifesto
Their smiles saying bingo
Life in Sierra Leone is like war forever
Everyday we fight to survive
Cuz we are left to die
I started smoking marijuana
Because it’s feels like caged bird being normal
I electrify my brain with the challis
My eyes fall slowly cold as I try to spell changes
The harder I try the words I see is
Damages, Rough-edges, Rough-ages
How comes we couldn’t find ourselves out of the rough-ages
I mean the era of slavery
When our fathers’ father’s knees and fingers were swelling
But Shengbeh Pieh shown bravery
Bai Bureh was not educated enough
But he knows that over taxing is an intelligent slavery
You tax us to go to school without launch
How do you expect me to focus
D government has no better plans for my future
But I can’t say it loud cuz am nervous
They believe the future is in our hands
But how can I keep it clean with no sober sanitary
My hands are dirty
I had to snatch her purse cuz am hungry
How comes my cradle is like a nest of vipers
Bad energy they brings
Progressity they hinder
Positivity they murder
Then we are left to wonder
Wonder why you’ve not make anything
Though you’ve come this farther
Wonder why you look so older than father
Wonder your mother look older than the earth
Sometimes I feel the pain like thorns hooked to my heart
Their system is the quintessence of horror
Love is life, Life is love
If we can not inhale love
Then this society is suffocating
You called me lazy but you’ve never employed me
It is so provocating
U d tok say ar d smoke kush
Yes am levitating
Flying higher above my sufferation
I’m still the ghetto kid you love to hate
Blazing with ambition
So much had died in me
So sometimes my zombie make rash decision
I’m lost of words
Short of blood
In all manner of seriousness
Your organization is dumb to us
But am a renegade that’ll forever promulgate the truth
I won’t stop to talk till you heard my voice
Heard our voices, voices of street children
There’s no strong society without the inclusion of brave women
Your egotism is an unhandled problem
And your egoism has left us with hunger
You pursue a super-peaceful nation
But am wounded with anger
How can I be normal when all I see is danger
I’m ruled by a total stranger
Everyday when I kneel to pray
I close my eyes to see a tomorrow that’ll be better
You told me to be stronger
While pain dwells in my lungs like bronchitis
You told me to explain my feelings
But how can I explain an everyday feeling that feels the same
NO CHANGES