You had to go to hell
To get the truth
After your ejected it
In heaven.
Don’t you know?
That’s the way it works
My friend
Hope you get it now.
Hell is Heaven’s secret school.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
English
SALT
Your love was most present
In my life’s soup
When you were quietly absent
Your sea is a strong wall
Too deep, too intense, too wide
I don’t want it all
A pinch of you
On my flaming restless tongue
My dear, will do
You salivate my secret cult
With your infrequent invisible visits
Like salt.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
LOCKED INSIDE
There is one frozen lake
That thaws not in the spring
It is winter of wordless ache
In my awakening
In my beginning
After I awoke
I greeted the earth and forgot
The language Creation spoke
Before the big bang
And ding dong merrily on high
Once upon a time
After a bell rang
Before the big bang
A song my spirit sang
Song of flame
In tongue of flame.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
HOMETOWN OF THE SOUL
There is no other reward than finding yourself
The reward is finding yourself
And experiencing the joy of being yourself
It might seem like a small reward to you now
But when you’ve tasted everything else
Then you’ll understand that this is the greatest reward
Anything that emerges from deep within me
Is native to me
My hometown is a state of being
My state of being.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
PREY
She saw a hunter resting in the forest
His manly shoulders
Caused the trees to heave
In expectation –
She ruffled the leaves of his hair
Placed her hand on her heart
As she read his rising thoughts
He had been waiting for her.
Tremble not, lovely maiden,
Stretch out your hands and pluck
My golden fruit
For it hath not ripened in vain
This forest whispers
Told me you were
Coming…
The hunter hath found his mark.
The queen of hearts
Has met her match.
Black grass will quiver tonight
But the forest will keep our secret, my dear.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
MEMORYLESS
I forgot
I know not what
Because I forgot
And so I wander
And I wonder
Trying to remember.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
OMEN REVERSED
His demons
Come straight from hell
Chase him everyday
He remembers the cries of the women
Children and all the others
Victims of his guns of war
The land is silent now
His conscience is loud
The demons won’t go away
They want to take him with them
Back to hell where he belongs.
The last thing he did
Before he disappeared into the depths of hell
Was to pray
Oh yeah he sent up a prayer
Of apology – no plea for mercy – just apology
For all the victims of his merciless guns
Before he with a bold heart faces his demons
And yes the demons
Dragged him down with them
To the bowels of hell
Where his evil had created them
And that was the last that was seen of him
And that was the last that was seen of him
Thousand of years have passed…
But now when I look I see
An angel hovering over the pits of hell
Looking for him, calling him, waiting for him…
Will he rise out again? You’ve done your time.
Rise up, rise up, repentant spirit
From out the pits of hell
Where you no longer belong
Come back to Earth and do it differently this time –
Birth. Rebirth.
A new child is born
An old soul has come back again
Do it better this time
Save lives, brother
Save lives, brother
Love they neighbour, man
A little child
I see it in your eyes
You’ve got a heart of gold
Knowing and old
Full of the mission to do something good
A little child
I see it in your eyes
Exorcism of the demons of old
Save lives, sister
Save lives, sister
Love they neighbour, woman.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HOW CAN A NON-INVENTING NON-PRODUCER BE INDEPENDENT?
If everything you need for your survival and for your comfort and for your daily living is not made – talk less of imagined, conceptualised and invented – by you, are you truly independent? Or are you dependent on those who invent and manufacture those essentials you need?
If the maintenance of your standard, quality and basis of living is directly dependent upon the fact that there are others somewhere who think out the technology and the systems, and then produce the goods and processes which you then purchase through the exchange of raw materials that per chance exist within the boundaries of your sovereignty, then the very fact of your dependence eliminates all claim of independence.
Because independence cannot exist without self-dependence and self-reliance. Think about it.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
TALKING TO HERSELF
He loved her like the
Sun was about to fall down
Like lightning and thunder
Would be their eternal crown
And then when he’d had his fill he walked away
Now there she goes talking to herself
Each evening…
It hurts his soul
To see her cry
Yet he must go
He can’t explain why
The light and the darkness dwell inside his heart
So there she goes talking to herself
Each evening…
Trying to understand the demons in his heart
Trying hard to grasp what happened and then she starts
To blame herself for what she can’t explain
There she goes softly talking to herself
Each evening…
Each evening
Deep inside
Each evening
He’s suffering too
Too…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
KISS IN THE WOODS
I met a kiss
As I walked through the woods
It came out from behind a tree
Out of the cold
And met my lips
When I was not looking
It sent a shock of sorrow
Through my memories of tomorrow
And when I opened my eyes again
It was gone.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 