Hard Work, Success and Failure

When we look at the mouth of a warrior We think he never sucked his mother’s breast The birds that rest on the Iroko Does not know how the Iroko grew The heart that persevered in pain Is the heart that will rejoice with gain Like the Hibernating hedge hog Metamorphosing to life after winter Whales and sharks are not found in shallow waters The man who swims against the turbulent tides Of deep shark and whale infested murky waters Will get the whale oil, make a shark’s fin soup Or wear a shark’s leather jacket The resilient hand that never says die Sculpts stumbling blocks into stepping stones And squeezes water out of rock Like a gold stone that passed through a furnace And became the priceless gold ornament Separating the men from the boys The pot that wants cooked food Must be scorched by the furious and ferocious fire It is when the palms have been soiled by sand That the mouth will be soiled by oil The hand that is not soiled by sand Makes the mouth to be soiled by sand People like the mouth soiled by oil Because it can also soil their mouth with oil The mouth soiled by oil Has many names, relatives and friends But the mouth soiled by sand Has few name, few relatives and few friends.