A Guest Poem by Unoma Giese: Ad-vantage or Sonnet of the Bread Seller’s Baby

Foreword: We all know the Olajumoke story. Yawns. For me, the most exciting thing about this serendipitous situation, besides happening in my street of residence, is that it teaches us something about the possibilities of redemption and sheer happenstance. Ultimately, it also reminds me of a poem by Unoma Giese which I have chosen to share here,of course with her kind permission.

My vantage point, upon the tender petals
Of my young soul did indelibly mark,
Like heifers flesh branded with red-hot metal,
A sense of business, value, clear and stark.
While peers in Europe’s pushchairs had a vista
Broad with horizons of great means,
We Africans – me, my brother, my sister –
Beheld from mother’s back our glorious scenes.
More than just knees, buttocks and belts
From up there we saw customers assist
Her tray to the ground, pay, and duly help
It back upon her head as she’d persist
In pursuing for us a better living.
Today I repay her for all that giving.