Another spoken word piece that left me with goosebumps when I
heard it first; again, I wish you could hear it spoken. Some hard-hitting
truth that needs to be heard: please can we pay attention, administrators,
teachers and others in power; we need to change our values and the systems that
communicate them. With wise poets like this speaking up and out, there is hope
for that change.
7.35 A girl arrives at the gate
Sees a prefect waiting to put her name under ‘late’
She looks like Uncertainty
Walks like Shame with
Socks unfolded, hair uncombed
Strap hanging from her bag and no name badge
“Your name please?!”
“My name? My name is... Failure”
The prefect is taken aback and asks her again,
“What is your name?!”
“My name is FAILURE!
F-A-I-L-U-R-E, failure
The seven wonders of disappointment
That I’ve only ever known
And what my life has ever shown”
Every time she tried out for something
She was left with a cut heart left bleeding
Because everyone told her she was not good enough
Not even one had a thread of hope for her future being
bright
So she let herself be blindfolded from seeing that
light.
She got into form1, she went for tennis trials
Hockey trials, even walking club trials she
contemplated.
But she didn’t even make team C but team Ungraded.
In form2 she was sent straight to set 5
And let the school guide the direction of her academic
life
Then in form3, there’s no choir audition that she missed
But her name never appeared on the final lists.
In form4 she couldn’t get those history essays right
And cramming that chemical analysis was always a fight.
L6, she could only watch others gleam in their cream
And the way Elite Societies shut their doors in her face.
Not even in U6 was she made a captain for any club
A captain for any sport, not even made part of the
captains of the school.
She had a teacher look into her eyes
Told her she couldn’t do it if she tries.
But despite all that, she cracks her head to remember a
quote quite old
“our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but
that we are,
we are...we are incompetent beyond measure!”
But that can’t be right, yet that’s all she’s been told
That’s what her soul has resided to hold
Because she let people put a label on her forehead:
666 the mark of the devil, the father of lies
Lies that pin her to the ground so she can’t rise
That drill into her soul that she’s not worth it
Not even a dime if we put a price tag on it.
So please don’t judge her if she says her name is
Failure.
Because the thought of it makes her chest so tight
Feels like even breathing is a fight
And-and-and-
and can someone please pass her the asthma pump of the
truth!
That if she channels her mind into the right thinking,
Success will become a habit and not a seasonal blessing.
If she can just shut her ears from the world’s discord
And listens to the harmony of her heart beating
Because there lies a fiery passion
That will not let any title limit her capabilities
But catapults her into endless possibilities
Only then did she realise that:
Not making it into any trials
Won’t stop her from doing what she loves.
She will not let the set that she’s in determine her o’level
destiny
'cause she too can be Tendai Makani, bowling with that
trophy.
Not making it into any choir won’t stop her voice from
being heard
And if she just doesn’t give up, then her physics will
stop being blurred.
That not being part of the cream team
Doesn’t mean that she can no longer dream.
Not having a cream blazer here
Will not stop her from being part of the cream out
there.
Because success is not about the reward received at
first
But about the feeling of satisfaction of having done the
very best.
That when she gets to U6, she doesn’t need a title to be
a leader.
It’s not about getting the tie with the flame
But getting that flame from within to burn down all
kinds of ties.
Ties that are tied tight to break you
Tyres that will leave a mark once they run over you.
This aint a tongue twister, not a brain teaser
But a simple maths lesson that
Determination x Hard Work (despite the addition of
restrictions)
=BREAK THROUGH
So next time, she’ll come to school late again
So that she’s asked for her name.
Looking like Certainty
Walking like ‘Gwas’
Socks folded, hair combed
With a new name badge
And say, “My name is Grace”
“G-R-A-C-E, Grace
G standing for grace itself,
R for the richness of faith I have in myself
A for the awesomeness that bursts through my veins
C for the courage to move on and stand in what I now
believe in.
E for excellence ‘cause me too is on that RICE tip!
G-R-A-C-E, my name is GRACE”
Rumzy Rue
(Upper 6, 2014)
