I’m not talking
To the part of you you can control
With your thinking
Switch off and on in your soul
Two conversations run parallel
Unaware of one another
Just like politics debates but can’t foretell
Human laws of spirit and nature
Bend my mind and bend me back
When you leave, leave your truth behind
Worlds and worlds and worlds of meaning
That nourish slowly my mind.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Elementary particles
You and I
And our every thought of kindness
Wrapped up in temporary blindness
The thought will go
But the kindness in its heart will remain timeless.
Thousands of years later
Geologists can tell you where
A river once flowed.
Such is the parable of human hearts
And the tracks of our tears
And the marks we leave in each others’ lives.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The quiet quiet of that night over there
Look, that night is waiting over there
What a night! Quiet and black
The blackness swallowing up the fullmoon
It is a blind night
With a will so dark it smothers
It’s starry children
And blinds its one bright eye.
I shiver
As you approach
I shiver
As you reach out to me
I shiver
As you approach
Baby, I shiver.
I hesitate to look out through the window
Into the distance
At that night waiting for me
Me and my heart, my sojourning heart
The eerie cat is silent with fear
The snake slithers hastily away
I fear that night, but I must approach it
With my heart of flames – I am the sun
The cold sun.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
She was a weightlifter
They found it unseemly
But she was a shape-shifter
Their disdain was a lighter burden to bear
Than her fate.
Slum lady. Carried mud and bricks
Bore stones and sticks
Firewood, rusted water in weeping baskets
The stretch marks of impatient thirsty men
Bunched up her muscles.
Owned by all, never owned a thing
The madams’ slaps, the masters’ secrets
Nothing was too heavy a load to carry
To snatch, to clean, to jerk off –
Each jerk. Very ordinary.
Today, when she steps out unto the mat
Under the lights, there you see
Sunset in one eye, sunrise in the other –
It’s not heavy weights she’s lifting
She’s carrying hope.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I fear
The daily commute
To the valley of the mute
The echoless cry of my silent flute
Digs a hole in my soul
Wringe me mad
I fear
Mockery sticks his head around the door
You no waving yo flag no mo?
Blackhawk down
My dreams, stranded shipwrecks
Scuttle each hurriedly into safety
Hiding they fearfully await the scorching passage
Of the locals’ raging raid –
Some will be caught, shot, mocked
Some will sacrifice themselves
That the finer ones may escape the drape
For tomorrow’s blossoming
Quiet now
Wait for the Sign.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
He’s lying in the midst of his toys
And what language do they speak
To one another? They seem to understand
Each other. It’s his smile
That makes me strong.
I’m glad he can’t interpret my frown
When I look out of the window
Into the world, into the times –
Yes I’m glad for him
Let him store happiness in his heart today.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
Jokes are the barrier
People let down between themselves
A spoken word can wash away years of building
Leave in its wake a ruptured earth
Worse than as if life never happened.
Watch that joke, it’s no joke
The damage will outlive the laughter
Long long after
The careless word you spoke.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
They will pull you back
They are afraid of…
Anything that moves!
Long shackled pain and fear
Madden the mind
Time stands still
The tempted, fallen, becomes
The tempter
Learn to recognize them
The source of your pain
The source of your freedom
Movement!
There was a girl
the fruit of her labour
Was the world
With a cry of pain and a shout of joy
She gave birth to the world
And primitive was the world
Harsh the lips that burned her nipples
Rough the tongue that broke her word
And we’re still here today
The earth is still not enough
Mother has become a stranger
The outcasts have grasped their destiny.
-Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
Pick with care
The enemies you bear
When the unexpected is near
They shall be there
To crown you.
When true friends
Step off the boat
Curious, how the river
Turns your coat
Around you.
Clear your throat
Vomit when no-one is looking
Regurgitated oaths
Pressure-cooking
Sunbrowns you.
If diplomacy
Be their tactless god
How shall he decipher
Your non-committal nod,
Proud you?
But brave soldier
It is the art of war
To live on in pages
Of folklore
Unbound to you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 