The alarm rings before the sun can speak
A gray Ankara morning, tired and weak
Uniforms creased, backpacks too heavy to bear
Dreams hidden, small, full of darkness
Buses racing time, streets already awake,
Faces trying to wake, lost in the darkness of the day
A test today, another tomorrow,
Success is hoped, failure is sorrow
Chalk dust floats like silent commands
Teachers speak futures with fake hope
“Study harder,” “Time is running fast,”
As if youth has already passed
Lunch is short, jokes tasting like a hope of escape,
Friends laugh loudly, pretending we’re safe
Behind every smile, a quiet fight firing up
To be enough till Friday night
Parents hope with tired eyes,
“Do better than us,” in worried sighs
They don’t see the weight we drag,
The fear killing the joy slowly as we seek freedom
At night, as the desk becomes a cage,
Pages blur as letters fight numbers
Outside, life hums, free and wide,
Inside, we have to memorize and hide
Still, somewhere deep, a spark tries
Between wrong answers and stressful lives
Because even under pressure and strain,
A Turkish student learns how to survive, to rely, to hide