I CANNOT REMEMBER

I cannot remember all the good I did
I cannot remember all the evil I did
People remind me

As you go through the world today
Be mindful of the things you say
And do to those who cross your way

People will remind you one day.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THE TURNING POINT

Sometimes you can‘t really tell 
When or why you lost interest in a person
When exactly the bondage fell
And you finally understood life’s lesson
Being mediated to you through them

A fallen leaf is a priceless gem
It mothers and yields a new rising stem.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LONGING WITHOUT BELONGING

Half me half you
I became because of you
Neither me nor you
I remain and so do you

If I became fully me
And you became fully you
Would there be any similarity
Between me and you?

For the urge that binds us
Is the urge than divides us
We are similar in longing
But dissimilar in belonging.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

GOING SOLO

Once he doesn’t care anymore
All the beauty in the world becomes a bore
Every tender touch pinches a sore
Promises of true love sound like folklore.

He walks out forever through the door
He totally overturns what he is living for
When he has been wounded to the core
Every woman now seems to him to be a whore.

Fitting in with the act turns into a chore
He rips off the mask which once he wore
The mask his heartbreak from his heart tore
And breaks away from the naive days of yore.

An angel or a demon? Neither nor.
Be yourself or die trying? Either or.
Whatever else life may have in store
He’ll carve his own way now to heaven’s shore.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

SEX IS SECONDARY

Sex is secondary
Mission is primary
It is not who shares your bed
but who shares your path you should wed
Or you’ll suffer the aftermath.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW

If you want to know if people love you,
strip yourself of all lustre, rizz and fanfare,
like the trees shed their leaves in autumn,
so naturalness lays the human heart bare.

If you want to know if people accept you,
be yourself right from the very start,
not from the middle and not at the end,
your truth will expose the truth in their heart.

If you want to be free of pressure in your life,
tell people your truth as early as you can;
once they know and accept you as you are,
you can then live freely as your own human.

If you want to know how you really are,
remove your mask and exhibit your true self.
From people’s reactions over time you will honestly know
whether to change, or to continue to be, yourself.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

SUPERIORITY COMPLEX

Superiority complex
Is inferiority complex
Think about it

Someone constantly trying to outdo you
Means they feel constantly outdone by you
Attempted demonstration of superiority

Over you
Is an indication of feelings of inferiority
Towards you.

When it happens on an individual level
It is a curse
But when it happens on a group level
It is even worse

It is a revelation of the collation
of emptiness and of pettiness
in the norm of human form.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

NO HOLDING BACK

Do your poem
Like you do your woman
Like you do your man

Strong and Tender
Deep and Intense
Lovingly dismember
In the present tense

No holding back
Do your poem
Like you do them
That love you back.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

NO MATTER

No matter
How many times I get used,
I still can never get used
To getting used.

No matter how often
Fake people take a liking
To me, I never take a liking
To their liking.

No matter
How often I be in love,
I will never fall in love
While standing in love.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

WHY?

I cannot handle lies
like hot mounds of yam on a plate
smoking squinted eyes
thoughtfully tonguing open the gate
of questioning Whys
where Truth comes never or too late
to hear my heart’s cries.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river