- I have removed the past tenses. Can you reconstruct the poem?
Leaving home at 10
It ___________ (be) an old Peugeot 403
They don’t make them anymore
They don’t make them anymore
Tyres inspected, engine oiled, brakes checked
All in order as only an old Peugeot can be.
Its creaking body ____________ (hold) together by care,
My father _____________ (drive) me to the boarding school
In a small town one hour away from home …
All in order as only an old Peugeot can be.
Its creaking body ____________ (hold) together by care,
My father _____________ (drive) me to the boarding school
In a small town one hour away from home …
My tears and the car _____________ (hold) through the journey
Through the pothole in my heart and the tear on the road
Through the window, I ___________ (watch) the world rush past
The houses and the trees and the streets and the names
I had known and loved, all running backwards, with
No time to pause for a goodbye, no time to wave
To the departing son leaving the embrace of home and hearth
Through the pothole in my heart and the tear on the road
Through the window, I ___________ (watch) the world rush past
The houses and the trees and the streets and the names
I had known and loved, all running backwards, with
No time to pause for a goodbye, no time to wave
To the departing son leaving the embrace of home and hearth
We _______________ (arrive) over an hour later, father and son,
driving through the school gate to the dormitory
that was to be my home for the next five years.
Then my father ____________ (leave)… and, averting my eyes, I _________ (cry).
driving through the school gate to the dormitory
that was to be my home for the next five years.
Then my father ____________ (leave)… and, averting my eyes, I _________ (cry).
On initiation night I _______________ (recite) the prescribed words:
“I am a fag, a rotten green toad. I promise
to give up all my rustic and outlandish ways
and to become a true student of Government College, Ughelli.”
“I am a fag, a rotten green toad. I promise
to give up all my rustic and outlandish ways
and to become a true student of Government College, Ughelli.”
Soon after I _____________ (lose) the language of guavas and spirits
And ever since I have been boarded up in a new home,
A new language with neither spice nor bite.
And ever since I have been boarded up in a new home,
A new language with neither spice nor bite.
I miss all the coarse and colourful words I can no longer use
The power and potency of the curse uttered with a gob of spittle
Let loose in the language of the body and the spirit
The power and potency of the curse uttered with a gob of spittle
Let loose in the language of the body and the spirit
I miss the language that once _____________ (live) in my body.
- I have removed the past tenses. Can you reconstruct the poem?
- Look at the expression was to be. Do you think this expression refer to the past or the future? Do you know what it means?
- Why do you think the protagonist of the poem does not cry in front of his father?
- What is the significance of the language in the poem? How does it connect to the history of Nigeria?
- Think of other examples of going to boarding school in literature. Are they similar or different? Why do you think that is?
