Dear Diary, My Desiderata

Kwame just woke from his sleep,
The sleep he fell in only few hours ago
The sleep that he never gets enough
How he wish he can get thrice what he got
So he can have those nerves quiet calmed
But the link to the next move will soon expire
And he might never catch the train
If he'd emulate the honorable
With nothing except his future being equal,
He must be up on his feet and so he did
And just as usual and say casual,
He opens his diary in the poetic fashion
Allowing himself splitting into countless fractions

Dear Diary,
I know you accept my writings, as your desiderata
But what I am writing today,
Well, just let me write them first...
Some people think I like how I am
Some even think I love what I do
Few too wish I am something better
But I know none of them will ever know
They will never know how I feel inside
Not until they wear my rare face for days
Walk in my raptured boots for weeks
Or sleep in the ruins from, I just woke, for nights
They can never understand
And I do not expect them to
Because I understand them not
In as much as I wish to be like some,
Of them who become an inspiration,
To the less privileged,
The even less do I know about them
And in as much as I hate myself,
The even more I become increasingly aware
That I may not be destined to die in my struggles
But it doesn't mean something is changing soon
And that until I embrace my woes
I will forever keep hiding behind them

On the next page, like positive rage
His ink could help not but spark that flame
The flame that burnes to ashes and de-sires
You from the cord that tie you to the gone ages

I have long ceased to dream in my sleeps
Because what I see is what I believe  in
I refuse to let things go before I know their worth
Because I choose to live in the moment
To make things happen while they can
I pledge to be the help in hand for my failures
To be the strength behind my fears
I will never let myself down on this quest
And until I reach the end of the tunnel,
I am hardly going to switch channels

Philosophy 101

On the street, only the strong survive and the only way to be strong is to do no wrong because the evils that men do always come back to hunt them. You will be tempted in more ways than one, so be strong in more ways than one. Like a tree, the journey comes with many branches stemming from the trunk to every direction. You have choices to make all of which come with consequences and so you must be careful in making your choices. You need to be you but you also need to learn from others. Follow not the trail of others with your inner eyes closed and your inner ears blocked. Use your senses to detect your flaws and use your legs to flea for safety. Nobody ever made it successfully without failing at the first or other attempts. So embrace your failures and rise above yourself every other day.

Street Life

What a life we live in this dungeon,
Where everything goes wrong all the time
It feels like a prison,
One I am not ready to live in
Many are those who give up the struggle
Especially when success is right in the corner

Street life is sour, sometimes it's bitter
With some spills and many litters
Of pains, of sorrows and of worries
And some hopes buried in the struggles

It is a tag of war
And you must be strong to survive in the core
You win only if you become the last man standing
After the battle against yourself

On the street, we bill for credibility
Even though we lack security
And we hope for the best
Even though we dwell in the worse

Street life is about making it happen
Against every odd
It's about becoming the role model
For those lost in the mega odel
It's about rising above yourself
Reaching far beyond the baseline
It's about refusing to accept the definition
That plagued those that have gone before

Street life makes you stronger
To overcome the bunker
That lays behind the walls
That separates the street from the home

We Are Lost

We are lost in the blue...
Not in the blue of the sky above or of the ocean below
But we are lost in the blue of this age's miseries
Hoping and praying for the second coming of everything

Some time ago, my grandma will say,
These are not very good times to stray
You need the shield of the Messiah
And it's why you need a check on your desire

I have been searching since, for my lost self
Hoping to come by that very inscription
To interpret what my true identity is
But I am still the lost youth I have long learnt to be

I thought I needed the compass to traverse my space
But I have seen even the military leaving no trace
I tried to look into the oldest and newest dictionaries
Yet, here I am with my pills donated by mercenaries

Don't turn to media reports in search of your lost selves
You are like no other, stay true to your good selves
Do not survive on what makes you lose yourselves
But turn to the walls that separates you from your other selves

We are all buried in our own fears of being inadequate
But the truth is, what's in us is much bigger than we estimate
Let's be not too worried about what we lack
Because we have is more than what we have lost

We are taking a deeper look into ourselves
So we can unravel the hidden concepts
This age is not in favor of the less privileged
But we are not stopping until we break every odd

SAVE THE STREET CHILDREN

I wonder why we don’t seem to care

About the ordeal they face while we stare

So I ask, are we really willing to spare

The future right at our obvious glare

I see them in the traffics under the burning sun

Hawking and vending stuffs like having fun

But they are our little daughters and sons

With prospects we need not abandon

You call them street children,

Because they survive on the street

But I call them friends

Because I am myself, a victim

They are found far at sea while others sleep

Some dangle and bangle in the jungle’s deep

And it strikes me like a spear in my belly

Their unchartered cries and sorrows dearly

I have seen it all with my two eyes

I have heard it all with my two ears

As they toil and soil heavily to make a dime

And analyzing, I think their call for help is prime

Must the children fend for themselves?

Can they protect themselves, from the terrors in shelves?

No, I think we should re-tight our belts

Before we witness our dear future melts

Some will be presidents and ministers of state

Some are the heroes and heroines we await

So let’s not close our ears to their plights and pleas

For they are the hopes we must fight to please

Give them the basic needs of life;

Food, shelter and clothing

They deserve basic education;

Primary to secondary

Give them a hand to ease their strife;

In spirit, in body so comforting

They can help our emancipation;

From ordinary to legendary

They have countless holes on their shirts and skirts

And their sorry stories keep lacking happy endings

So here I come with my spoken concepts

Calling out loud for a collective arms lending

For their redemption from pain and sorrows

And for the security of the generation that follows

Let’s ease their struggles and lift their elbows

Without them, the future is but a whining hollow

How can we ever afford to not care

About their daily struggles and pains

To make meanings of each of life’s episodes

While for our mega worries, they have the antidotes

Can’t we? Can’t we join our arms with arms in arms?

To correct what we think was wrong for so long?

And revive the dying hopes dangling on the street

And save the future from the grips of beastly hands

©2016

The Tales of a Street Youth

I was told to learn to make it on my own
And it is the realest thing I have ever known

They say I am at liberty to dream as big as the Milky Way
But then, I will have to pave my very own way

The street is not just my home, though here I keep all what I own
It's where I have lived all my life, with my flesh and bone

Many call me names both to my credit and discredit
But I am more concerned about my scrip for edit

I have a different story to tell the generations to come.
I begun long time ago and this' how far I have come

From the getho where I was born and grown,
Where I have seen many slip down the throne

On your way through this age's wilderness,
In my shoes, you have more to lose than to gain

To make it in my world, you must be one in a million
And to keep it, you must be the first among the chosen

But those are not reasons enough for me to let go,
Especially, not when I still feel the need to flow

My case is not one you'll love to hear, not here
So I will keep the lead on the rest until a better year.

Through It All...

The street is not a place, you can just survive
It's mean for the fittest of the fittest to thrive
It's not a free sky for the birds to dive
You really must be in charge of your drive

The street is the place for the forsaken; the unwanted
It's where you find the shattered dreams; abandoned faiths
And it's also where you find the hopes
The hopes that have lost their opes

The street is a ruin; a mega mine ready to explode
Because we feel too much pain and suffering;
Too much violence and insecurity reloaded
And many have lost themselves in the offerings

But through it all, we will thrive to higher heights
To the ends only variants can reach from where we start
We will defile odds and redefine boundaries
And we will be okay like the clouds in the sky.

Through it all, we shall refuse to defuse
The sense of togetherness we feel
And through the pain and the sufferings,
We shall be called victors; the survivors. 

Street Credibility

I dispute those who despise the street youth
Because I believe we hold the key to our root

None of us chose to be less privileged,
The society and our leadership is to blame

The scorn and the mobs, I am not sure how long we can bear
Though I have seen many rise to the top every year

And that's what we call street credibility
It's the highest form of inspiration available to the youth

To see brothers reaching their dreams after the struggle
Means everything to the youths in the gethos

That's what gives many of us the courage
To keep fighting for survival in this core age

On the street, until you become a stand out,
You are never going to be given the credible stout

The challenge you face everyday should make you stronger
Because being strong is all you need to keep longer

Street credibility is what many of us are fighting for
So my brother and my sister, go get what you are looking for

Let's put a stop to crime and bury the hatchets
Because together we fall and together we rise

We must defend the street with our very last breath
That's where we live, it's the only home of our own

Let's send the message out, to the uptown
About the challenge we are facing downtown

This is the only way we can claim what we've lost
Our credibility; our right to rise above mediocrity

MESSAGE TO THE YOUTHS

Like a lifeless log on the river

Don't be carried in every direction

Re-shift your gears; be a dreamer

And make meaning of every session

Make decisions you can always stand by

Because you are responsible for your fights

The time is always right but never late

So there is hope for all, even those who wait

Don't let anyone tell you it's impossible

Because every achievement is plausible

You are beyond the reach of failure

So just relax in the achievers' area

In between two distant poles,

In a country far away than I know

Dangles the dreams of the young

Crushing and expiring to time's bond

But here I come again with the redemption song

Inspiring hope and urging all to be strong

For the journey may be rough and tough and long

But the race is for the victory long lost but now found

Take it to the land beyond the valley

That we have faith in our county alley

And that they can join us on the victory parade

So we match on and over every barricade

The time is right and it is now

For you and me to make a mean

Through the thick and the thin

And fulfill every good vow

Stand up for yourself in the dark

Keep your watch as the dogs bark

Be wise not to get knocked from the back

Nor to get broken without a mark

Fighting is not the case we trace

But what we fight for in the face

I mean the side for which we fight

Should be but our utmost concern

Concern, about what's right or wrong

About the brethren long gone

And about the hopes, apart torn

For victory is what for we are born

DREAMS UNLIMITED

What I see when I sleep,

Sends me miles into the deep

Beyond the mountain's steep,

Where lays the poles in success' heap

What I see with my eyes looking,

Solves the puzzles long on my booking

And for the very same reason,

I keep surviving every season

There is a bell that keeps ringing

On my mind and in my heart clinking

Reminding me of the birds singing

Their melodies with hopeful meanings

I don't have to be anything but me

To dance in rhythms on the beat

To fight my battles on my feet

And wear the crown that feet me

I know we all see things in our sleep

But I can't tell if they're worth the keep

Or if they're worth the fights in our clips

So I let them pass piece by piece in peace

Then I turn to the things I can really see

With prayer to The Father never seen

And though I am sometimes at sea,

I still see the lights from the bluefields

Yes, I do dreams, but I do it without limit

I see it, I follow it and I believe in it

And then I act to make the ends meet

Because at last, I am in charge of my fit

You have the power to be powerful

Just believe in your dreams unlimitedly

The most sophisticated tool you can ever find

Is nothing more than your feeble mind

No matter how far you go in your dreams,

You still wake up right where you lay

So let your dreams not be what you see in your sleep

But what keeps you up and running into the deep

Dreams are unlimited and they are edified

They need to be ignited for they are dignified

Dreams have no substitutes or contenders

And they are not institutes for pretenders

Simon K. Amu (DzideFo)

©2016

NEVER GIVE UP

Now is not the time....

Not the time to frighten out

Rather you tighten up your stout

Than drown in your pool of fear

Because there is a price to pay

For whatever success you account

It takes the tough to survive

To survive the struggle and dive

The deepest depth

And flip the success pages?

So gird yourself strong

To correct whatever wrong

Giving up is not a choice

That's accepted by your inner voice

You let yourself drown into that pool

And you end up a rotten wool

Just never let go of whom you are

Because of the advents you must dare

Never give up on your limits

Because you are stronger than you think

You keep asking the questions

And keep searching for the answers

But in everything that you do,

You've got to fight your own fights

One thing you must remember,

No one was born to slumber

Another thing you must remember

You're the best to fight your combat

So you must be very real

Get knocked down, get up back again

When the going goes wrong,

All you must do is be strong

Because life continues for the living

No matter the misgivings

That's why despite the backbites

You still must aim higher with your spikes

 

Yes, you must aim high in everything

Dream as big as the Milkyway

Pursue her like a prey after its victim

Because for whatever reason, you must win

You are the head of your universe

And you so much deserve the best ever

Persevere to be revered

Stay alive to be revived

Fight on to ultimate victory

And march on to your divine glory

But whatever that happens

You should keep your edges sharpened

Now is never the time to give up

No matter how dark the tunnel is

You have unlimited potentials

To unleash your essentials

So while you still see the signals

Shift your gears to the maximum

It takes you to break odds

Just believe in the living God

Keep your grips tight

Or else, you'd miss the light

To those who chose to win

Giving up is a foreign concept

So never ever give up the fight

If victory is what for, you aspire