The light goes on and off
like a shivering bulb in a cold room
Your heart is not enough
to beat back the nocturnal bloom
Dawn, the dusk is tough
the mother of both glow and gloom
Lover, your mouth is rough
when you kiss at night you don’t know whom
Shadows long call your bluff
but your birdsong cries out mushroom
I’m you’re d’healer I’ve got the good stuff
sweeping you off your feet like your bride broom
Yes, you are the one I’m thinking of
When the new moon starts to wax and loom.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river