There is a cacophony of crowd
That is calming to the soul
Happy humanity buoyantly loud
Making its empty parts whole

When lungs are full of hearts
And hearts are crowded with mirth
And mirth is the song that charts
The path that longed for our birth

But even in the loudest throng
I hear your silence echoing
A dull throbbing of something wrong
The wind of strange bellowing

And where the multitudes gather
There I see your absence clearly
In the throes of the happiest banter
I quietly miss you dearly.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river