Of Contemporary Assessment

SOCIAL INSECURITY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

A child will fall ill today
His parents will weep
Not because the child is ill
But because there is no safety net
To catch the weak and defenceless
In the land of the Niger and the Benue

Every fall is a fall
Through the cracks
Down to the rock bottom
Your savings alone might save you until
Your savings are gone – then, if you have
No rich family or friends, citizen you’re done

A man will lose his job today
A woman will lose her home tonight
Do not tell them not to weep
For they’re falling and there’s no safety net
To catch the weak and the helpless
In the land of the Niger and the Benue.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije 

AGAINST POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS

~ Che

Political correctness
Has fallen out of favour

Racial correctness
Is the new In-thing
The new hypocrisy
The new incarnation of evil

All you clever cowards
Claiming it’s time to be politically Incorrect
You have simply replaced one evil
With another –
Racial correctness
Cultural correctness
Religious correctness
Narrow-hearted correctness

That’s what brings in the Votes now.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

INTELLECT

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Much praised –
Who raised
You up?

And what do you really see?
What do you know?

Where Intuition sees
A thousand lies
Intellect has the tools
To fashion them into one
Uncomfortable hard truth.

Verily, some hearts
Have no mouths
And some mouths
Have no heart.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

JUST DO SOMETHING NEW

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Kingdom of oil and salt
Swishing tales swipe the sand
Behind vanishing storytellers, nay, dreampreachers

With high-sounding verses
They promised us a great future
Where are they now?

Where are they now, to see us
Reaping locusts and riffling through
Sheaves of worrisome mirrors

For, how closely the future mirrors the past!
Eyeballs hypnosis of rearview mirrors
Nobody driving the car forward.

Too much salt!
Do you hear my tongue burning
A song of sadness into your ears?

Too much heat! To look back
While walking forward is folly
New generation, is folly.

New generation. This name mocks you
Like it mocked before your time
Every generation that came and left.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE ELIXIR AND THE MUSE

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

Joy is my elixir
Sorrow is my muse
When one is not there
The other I use

The mountain-top of poverty
Will give you a clear view
Into the character of humanity
And make a sage of you

The dark depths of wealth
Will expose you to propensity
To indulge in all things that tempt
And to understand vanity

You will see needy nations
Full of natural born resources
Of lazy corrupted wasted generations
Raining on each other backward curses

You will see greedy nations
With the mastery of bright inventions
Choose instead to perfect division
And to invent and sell deadly weapons

You will see great minds
Of science, religion and philosophy
Brainwashing weaker minds
Into believing everyone different is their enemy

You will feel the cold power of politics
In high and low places
And learn to respect the simplest tricks
For they win the most complex races

You will despair and turn to the dark side
And hear its mocking laughter
You will look for the light far and wide
And severity will be its answer

Illness will teach you
That your body is not all of you
There is eternal life inside of you
It is the real you

And you will learn from disgrace
How fickle are our human ways
When you’re up they’re quick to praise
And quick to damn you in your fallen days

Wonder above wonder
The flight of technology
Cannot take you any further
Than truth, hope and simplicity

Trust is still a riddle
Treachery a talking drum
Death still waits in the middle
Of the life you can’t escape from

Only love, only love will understand
And bring you strength and succour
Even as it holds in its tender hand
A little joy, a little sorrow

The power to open our eyes
To the little acts of kindness
That tower above parochial ties
And cure the heart of its blindness

To civilise joy with purpose
And pacify pain with message
For just as poetry elevates prose
Goodness preserves youth in age

Some bend the word
To achieve selfish aims
Diplomacy becomes their sword
So who are we to blame?

Joy is my elixir
Sorrow is my muse
When one is not there
The other I use.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.