STUDENTS’ VOICE
With Saikou Suwareh Jabai
You are welcome to yet another edition of your weekly Student’s Voice. We feature stories, articles, poems, etc, from students and teachers alike. We encourage other students to contribute and get their writing skills developed. The column is open to all and sundry in the education milieu of The Gambia. Sit back, relax and enjoy these fascinating pieces.
QUOTATION OF THE WEEK
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover,” –Mark Twain.
STRESSING
Ah! Waking up just to sit around
Sitting around just to end the day
Same old, same old!
Stress is leading
Young’un in their future feet
Stepping up as that’s the only way
I’m not complaining
I’m just venting out
For those brothers
Giving it their lives to make ends meet
But ouch! Ends are too blunt
Crooked and rusty
Taking the skins off hands trying to feed themselves
Faith is the only reason
Why they dream
But not what the system have made out of us
The time is a ditched hole dream
The only prayer is hope
That heaven is not too far
Or too perfect for us
It matters not if it is a ghetto
Let it just be where we can sip, puff and feel
The reality with no pain
The gain after this pain
This pill be the sweet
Rather this bitter
Let our sweat be fragrance
And the rain to grow the flowers.
By Abdou Jallow,
Wellingara.
NO TRUST
Adventures are for the wise
Nasty memories are for the clowns
Save a picture
And eat away somebody’s life
And you peg a price
And get paid and survive on that fortune
No trust…
The lover has a glittered face
Conceals the pain during the race
Now your heart is in his cave
It’s time to face trouble
And your heart will burst
Cause his love is lost
No trust….
My friend is seasonal
When I glitter he comes
When I get darker he leaves
And on the streets he would wait for another catch
I would not call him a friend
I would call him a silent robber
No trust….
Indeed I pleaded for her to remain put
But her legs are like wheels
And in every room I was told she was there before
The rumors splash like paint
Everyone says her name
The funny thing is she is my wife
No trust….
He told me he would take me abroad
Find me a decent job
Off we go and he took us to a pub
Took us to his house and said this was your job
Satisfy every guy’s need
And that was the nasty job they managed
No trust….
By Maimuna Joof,
Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute.
OXYGEN
Inhale and exhale
Complain and turn pale
Fold your arms
And you are fired with bullets
Be like oxygen
Act like oxygen
Society needs you
Throwing you dreams
The insane become a form of free comedy
This is the reality
Stealing and stabbing
Cuddling with drugs
Life ends up like a rag
Be like oxygen
Help people live
Words are weapons for image destruction
If they say you can’t be a star
You listen and get doomed
You ignore and shine
I tell you they are blind
I tell you be society’s oxygen
Fix and don’t cut lives
Protect the child
Filled their minds with good morals
Mould them into stars
Inhale and exhale
Complain and turn pale
Fold your arms
And you are fired with bullets
Be like oxygen
Act like oxygen
Society needs you.
By Maimuna Joof,
Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute.
CONFESSION
To the poets, bravo for the rough ride
Let the passion kill
And spill the blood of the bent heads
For the pen is the power of all powers
I must express my love to those who inspires
The thanes of creativity
The assassins of stress
The heart strikers
The herbalists of emotions
Without your being, my being is boring
As knowledge takes its place in the hearts
Where it informs, educates and entertains
The pen must not dry if the brain is not
The brain must not dry if the heart is not
The heart must not dry if emotions are not
Emotions must not dry if nerves are not
And such are the roots of life
Be a deaf man to the hypocrites
A dumb to the fruitless gossips
Let the hero do its work
The divine gift in the form of an ink
My deepest love to every poet
Male or female, young or old, beginner or legendary
You are my partners in live
Who do not mind my loyalty
But who do the doable, ignore the expectable
I have given so many red roses
But the brightest belongs to you, my lovers!
Omar Cham
The Gambia College.
