HIMMA INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE, MINNA

2024 HIASFEST SPOKEN WORD COMPETITION

TITLE: A CHILD AT HOME

(Intro: Vigor) In the hush of twilight's embrace

Where shadows dance and daylight fades

There's a story that unfolds, untamed

of a child at home, a spirit unchained

A child who could only dream

A dream that dies at sunrise

(Rising) When I was given a child at home

all I thought of was a child alone

like a lonely house a top a hill

A life, chaperoned by shards of strife, sorrow and slander

Statistics say they cannot cope

For their bones, sadness hormones does break

So, they lose their hopes to knives

This is the scope of a child at home

(Falling -emotion) Life deals with them ,so tears become their meals

When they look up, they can't see the sky

For they're enclosed in four walls and ceiling top

Their windows and door, their parents lock

it creates more room for trauma

They pray to God and question why?

Loneliness fills their cup and the only sound you hear is that of a clock:

Tick, tick, tock!

(Rising) A child at home, a child who wishes to pass the tall black gate

Pass the restrictions they call protection

A child whose wings were clipped even before he learnt how to fly

(Conversational) You restrict me from education and you called that development? You tied my legs
and caged my voice and expect me to believe that you are God sent? You expect me to go down and
say 'Nagode' as if you have done something for me?

I can't take away the scenery of misery and now, you will be telling me to not be free

to not go outside and see the canary, the birds and the herd of sheep

the stinging bees, whenever nature sings

You keep me locked away from my dreams

For the outside wall is scary, you tell me

So, I should stay within the walls of anxiety

anxious to know the unknown, caged within this reality

(Dialogue) I know of a child at home who is abused by big aunties and uncles

left with a pyramid of pains and confusion , with a life tied to threat and tension

I know of a child who lives, eats and breathes hardship

with no place to play, pranks to make, no shoulder to lay

So sad it is

but I still see a beam of light

(Rising) Yes! I'm a child at home but that doesn't mean I'm a garden gnome

I could do something you may not have known, so LISTEN!

I'm a seed that needs to be sown, not to be thrown away like a bag of bones

a bag of stones is more useful that I am at home

I will be the bone of contention on YouTube shows

and this will happen when I have grown

(Rising)It is insidious, oh yes, blind inception

It's my reality, all these questions

(Falling) I feel like my life is filled with deception

I have broken wings but I chose perfection

These walls, these wall are just my blank expression

Expressing my depression

Unhappiness, slavery and misery

(Closing) A child at home, gigantic being of inferiority

A close pot of water never opened, never tasted, a minority

Caged in this den of solace with thousands thoughts of emotional combat

a constant fear of the unknown, a blind bat

Oh no listen! Yes, Listen!

Let's cherish our little ones and help them grow to be irokos

Destroyer of the walls of Jerichos

Wings to the future for their potentials flow like the Pacific
And like the Achebes, the Alkalis and the Soyinkas, they will become prolific