Of Alienation

WAVING GOODBYE

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

When I started to interact with you
Little did I understand
That true friendship is an addiction
Too hurtful for lonely people

Metamorphosis from yesterday’s amnesia
To today’s cage of painful memories
Was like dawn that swiftly recedes
Unobserved.

The numbing melody of a thousand shards
Crashing to the splintered ground
Is a sad song
Yet I must dance alone.

Life has petalled pain
With the scent of a red rose
A caged rainbow beats in my chest
Like Harmattan waving goodbye to the rains.

-Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

STAY ON YOUR PATH

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

The words will still be the one

The one to articulate Silence
When we sing the praises of Silence
We do so with words

The strange bird will still be the one

The one to carry your story forward
Even though you ostracized him
He will preserve your story
When strangers rule the world.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE BREAK-UP

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The worst pain I ever felt
Was once when I embraced someone
And my embrace, she said,
Made her think of someone else.

Some things you should keep to yourself,
Yet it’s better when they’re spoken out
And it’s best of all when they hurt like hell.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FOREST ROAD

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There is comfort in pain
Like these tears that spill my eyes
Mine heart shallt drink
When I am alone

They all left me, one bye one
But I shall not break
Like the palm tree, bent under
My laugh will be straight again

A lane travels through the woods alone
Asking for no company
Neither loving nor hating those that
Walk on him and leave him behind.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

COMPANY

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Through this last stretch
Of lonely days
This last patch of watered fields
Although the mountains be now in sight
Need I some company
To make easier the journeying
And ease a bit my lonesome sorrow
That I by pain be not too distracted
From that alertness
That be my sworded shield…

So keep me company
Dear Muse
From here to Kingdom Come.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RESURFACING

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Your disgrace
Reflected on my bottom
Wiped with tears across your lost face
Mirrored in anguish ambushed –

Be of good cheer –
The dew
Washes the exposed leaf clean each time
The cock crows again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

THIRD WORLD

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There is a select few who
Understand how to unite the two
Warring worlds into a peaceful third –

They are the irregularly winged bird
That closes spaces with one sweep
And with a hundred beats doth barely creep
Forward.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

SEARCH

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

I think I definitely lost something
A better me
I hold a promise locked somewhere in my soul
But I’ve forgotten what it is
I know not how to unlock it
It is gone
Gone home.

Imagine
You are walking and
Walking and walking and walking
And
Walking and walking
And suddenly you make out something
In the distance –
But it is silent all around you
No life, no flowers, no birds
Only a dusty sun…

When you get to the object
You find that it is a tombstone
A silent grave undustied
In the middle of the desert
And your name is written on it
There
Waiting for you
In the middle of nowhere –
What do you do?
Thirsty soul
Hungry for love
Dying for the water of life
You stand for a long time
And stare down at your
Resting place.

But when you looked up
You saw
Gleaming above a distant hill
The green back of a yellow sun
Not dusty
Not lost…
What do you do?
Lay down in your grave
And die?
Or leave your name behind
And continue to walk
You talk to yourself
I hear you I hear you
Talking to yourself
Like a mad woman…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

LONELY FOOTFALLS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

How deep must be the night
Inexhaustibly deep
To awaken such endless restlessness
In countless sleepless souls

And there you see Love
Wandering in lonesome search
Like a homeless stranger on earth
Restless, tireless, nervous

Moving from heart to heart
Knock knock knocking on human’s door
‘Tis not the love of partner pleasure
It is higher, it is Compassion

And through the restless night
Quietly in spirit we search
As though we were desperately listening
For love’s footsteps in our hearts.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EMPTY AGAIN

~ Che ~ 7 Comments

In heaven
I saw birds
Even blackbirds

So I wrote
This poem
Which is just words

And when I was done
And looked up
It was an empty sky.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.