English

DROWSY

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

My eyelids are falling
Like felled trees in the forest
My words are milky like drunken clouds
My breathing is slow and heavy like
A market woman’s feet in the evening

I am sleepy, drowsy, swimming and
I am about to fall awake –
Do you think I’m dreaming right now?
I can’t tell the difference
Do I write poems in my dreams

And forget when I awake?
The dream is the poem, a poem is a dream
I must leave you behind in the dream now, my love
Where my words will live on while
I wake asleep in the morning, in the morning.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

NAIJA

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

They call you many things
Name-calling is a game of stones
Hydra-headed mad woman chattering away
Away noisily to the sea – come to me, let me be
My own jam-packed contradiction.

Let’s take a stroll from the desert to the sea shore.
Before you get there, you will have to heal
The sick and the infirm, educate
The ignorant, the uninformed, the misinformed, the rudderless, help
The needy, house
The homeless, don’t forget
The aged, the retired, give money to
The poor, awaken hope
In the despairing along the long way to Africa’s destination.

Dictators and cabals raise hell
Entertainers and fanatics raise the roof
And the corrupt raise the cost of life –
We’ve had enough of them all
Let’s raise our standard of living.

There can never be freedom, never
Be peace, nor security, in a system that nurtures
The endemic poverty of this
Many people.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

P.O.V.ERTY

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Sand for breakfast
Tasted no better than shit
I don’t beg for alms anymore
I just snatch it

My mother’s tears
Son I did not bring you up to be a thief
Mom you didn’t raise me to suffer in poverty, did you?
I just want some relief.

Sometimes they look out of their cars
Our eyes meet
I wonder if they ever wonder
If I know the taste of meat.

If I were in their shoes
Would I mean nothing to me
If driving by I saw me chained by poverty
In a system that benefits only me.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

THE TRUE LOSERS

~ Che

What kind of “soldiers” waylay, ambush and kill an 86yr old man?

And what kind of people celebrate such “brave soldiers”?

Are you not ashamed?

Is this how you want to win human hearts over to your cause?

You are not only killing lives. Even more importantly, you are killing any sympathies that billions of people all over the world could have ever felt for you.

The  more you kill, the more you lose.

Stop it. Become human.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

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YOUR FORGIVENESS SMILE

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That moment
When the bitterness
Isn’t bitter enough to sour
Your forgiveness smile

And yet sad is the smile.

How friends fall away like unmasked leaves
Unable to bear the weight of trust
In all its lightness
Treachery by politeness.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

TANGERINE

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Brief was our meet
Thick and soft, quick
The covers fell
And when it was over
There were no seeds left over
That fell

No strings
No roots
No fruits
Yet something holds me still there
They way you smiled and sadly whispered
So you’ve forgotten me now.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

NAMELESS

~ Che

I don’t exist
I died when I was a child
My parents killed me

This is a ghost
A flag fluttering in the wind
A nameless mound

A seeking that has grown weary
Of seeking – a being
That has tired of being

But being me
I must be and wait
For my funeral song, composed by me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YOU, MY RIVER

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

I see you in this moment as a river, flowing out.

If you touch it, it makes your fingers wet. If you drink it, you get thirstier. If you watch it, you never come to find out its wherefrom or whereto. If you dive in, it takes you to a place from which you can’t return.

So you have to be strong, and outriver the river and outthirst your thirst, for the river flows in you.

And if these words mystify you, then you understand the effect you have on many people.

But when you dive in, dive deep into the river’s bed and clench its roots with your teeth and bite, so hard, that it bleeds. Then will you see the river run…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LIFE IS A BURDEN MADE LIGHT

~ Che ~ 6 Comments

Life is a burden made light
By the weight of sacrifice
Your life is useless unless used to the full
For something meaningful and useful.

Self is heavy, selflessness is light
The battle is painless for them that fight
The volunteer’s prize is dignity
Freedom is not for free.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
from THE BEAUTIFUL ONES HAVE BEEN BORN
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KNOCKIN’ BOOTS

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

***
Last night something strange
Cracked a door open on the wall
Of my memory, without even knockin’ twice

It came out of nowhere, suddenly.
A song, I was 17, house party
Whose house? I don’t remember any more

There she was, in the dark
Dancing with me, like I was the night wind
She a young tree, swaying, leaves shuddering slowly

Two shadows in a room full of shadows
House of teenagers about to wake up
From youth with only memories faded of yesterday

How long did this song quietly travel
Through time, to waylay me in that lookback moment last night
And take me back to that other night so many years ago?

Every memory I think I’ve forgotten
Is stored in some song somewhere, seeking me again
So don’t ask me why I’m dancing oldskool

Time is a candyman, stuck to your melting heart
Memory memory will knock your boots back
Never ever ever gonna let you go

Where is she now? My young mango.
She is a part of this song now
And last night I saw her, danced with her, again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerijeem>