1.The winds were soft
T’was midnight
We were gathered in an amphitheatre
The venue was OAU,Ile-Ife
The guest artiste was invited over
A lady guided him to the podium
3.The voice I heard
Soothingly struck my spinal cord
I shivered with excitement
My mouth agape
His fingers even stroked the keyboard
His name-Cobhams!
4.As the programme ended
We shuffled to our dormitories
Everyone talking about Cobhams
Saying the little they knew
” He was born blind”
I overheard someone say…who knows for sure?
5.I froze in my tracks
Tears welling in my eyes
His song filled our hearts with light
Light blindingly bright
He definitely can’t be ordinary
I concluded as I slept that night
6.The blind had a dream
He saw beautiful days ahead
He fed on blindness
All to grow into an enigma
He lived in a world of ordinary people
The extraordinary happened
7.One of his secondary school seniors
Who described him as very likable
Told of a day he won’t forget
When a lady named Mariam duped a ‘roomie’
Cobhams,a junior ‘roomie’,heard about it
He later turned it to music in the room
8….”I saw Mariam…panparanpapapa
Mariam beautiful from head to feet
When you see her you should run
She isn’t a girl for you to love
When she says that she loves you
Don’t listen,it’s not true
But when you miss her
You are gonna miss your wallet too”
They all enjoyed as he sang
He,preparing for conquest,as David did in the wild
9.Thanks for rising above blindness
All to give us meaning
Thanks for showing us the way
With the beautiful light you bear
I wish you can see and read all this by yourself
But then,thank God you can’t
10.Without Blindness
There wouldn’t have been Cobhams
We wouldn’t have heard Rooftop MC singing ‘Lagimo’
Asa’s ‘Jailer’ would have been a dream in the jail
To you,Blindness,we say thank you
For giving us the mystery extraordinaire called Cobhams
Credit: Dr Fowler…for the song about Mariam.
Soyombo Ayomikun tweets from @alabaster85
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