Statue Poem by Joseph Oladehinde Ibikunle

You've been here all these days
At a rather ready but reluctant pace,
Bearing big basket of books
Your head bows, some atrophied looks.

Your arms elbowed over the shoulders
Helping the basket heavy as boulders.
This you've carried all night and day
Built high your muscles of clay
Your brown skin shines in the sun,
With vim you toil in raining morn.

You were alone when I met you,
And I, with my head, lonely too,
I did not walk up to you
For handshakes or 'how do you do? '
Now, I have friends of different faces
Fellas and damsels of different races,
Still, you have no friend - no one,
Nevertheless, you care for none.

When I became gaunt of hunger
You never ate, yet make no blunder.
You care not - not for any contigency,
No fear for carry-over or exigency
Unlike we that run by your nude vigour
Attending classes, calculating our figure.
Unfaltered and contented with your ladden
Me thinks you carry the whole world as burden.