I Was Never Dumb! Poem by Kondwani Simwaba

I was never dumb!
To the school that made me feel Dull!
I just want to let you know that I made it, I mean ofcourse I am not driving my dream car or any car but am goal driven; You beat me down more times than I could count and am not even talking about bullying, you made it clear that I was the bully simply because I came from the ghetto my innocent smile mistaken for grimace.
You pinned me down academically, made me feel ineptitude in more ways than one; sure my grammar was a little bit rusty and I couldn't quite recite the multiplication table eloquently but that does not mean I was dumb, you chose to define me by a curriculum designed for most to fail that doesn't even reflect the reality of life.
You laughed at my English when I spoke but never bothered trying Tumbuka or Nyanja, I bet I could have aced all your tests if they came in these languages; but you dealt me the wrong cards and then thought me the joker, placed me in front of the classroom so the other kids could laugh at me too.
To the school that made me feel dumb! I am now a valedictorian of the University of Life only because I subscribed to the school of thought and what I know now I promise you, a million of your kind would have still never taught me; so as your alumni, I just want to tell you this; I never failed you, you failed me.
To the teachers that made me feel Stupid!
Just the other day, I found myself writing assignments for the kids you said were brighter than me; I guess their lights deemed and I have the lantern at the end of life's tunnel. You defined me by a number I got in class and said I'll never be anything but last, alas! The last do come first, it's funny how I've excelled at life's tests.
You ignored my hand when I raised it to answer because my speech had some impediments, laughed at me when I kept misplacing L & R in my explanations; you made a fuss about it when I said ‘putted' was the past tense for ‘put' when you taught me that everything past ends with ‘ed, ' I think I challenged you because I was smart.
To the teachers that made me feel stupid! Haha… The joke's on you, you threw books at me and I made memoirs out of them; you dealt me the wrong cards and I pulled out aces from them, you laughed at my handwriting and I designed my own calligraphy and when you used English to spite me, I made Poetry out of it; I was the Joker but in the end Mr Frank, you got the killing joke…
RhapsodyArts
KingTMC*