Trade Places Poem by Aluko Oluwaremilekun Tosin

Trade places with me and you will
feel the tiredness of your wife,
the resentment of your children,
the heavyweight agony in your soul.
Let's trade places and you will
go home with heavy legs after
working from morn to night
with nothing but story to show for it.
Trade places with me
on the run from your creditors will you be,
debtors on the run from you
landlord's impatience finally ran out.
Even for a day let's trade places
sex turns to rape with your wife,
an inexcusable failure to your children,
your packing out inevitable, says the landlord.
Trade places with me and you will
feel the effect of pension fund you stole,
see the evil in sharing arms money meant to fight terrorist
curse yourself for embezzling public funds.
Trade places with me and you will
lament on how to feed your family with 18,000 Naira
cry when you queue for hours to collect pension
that will only be spent on your failing health.
Trade places with me and you will
know that stealing and corruption is the same
Trade places with me and you will
remember the days of your humble beginning,
days of when you had no shoes
Trade places with me and perhaps
perhaps you might repent of your evil deeds
that will haunt you for the rest of life.