DUSKY

The wooded streets
heavy laden with evening tears
The dusk is wet with wanting
well within her weathered years
where everything longing meets
maturity already wears
with a battered beauty so haunting
for the bruises it softly bears.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

HEART OF GOLD

There is a part
of your world -
Inside your heart -
It is Gold.

Beware of the gold-diggers
Beware of the prospectors
Remember Ghana or the Incas
Protect the gold inside your heart.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

BADLY

I‘m hurting so badly
It’s driving me mad
And making me sad
I’ll take the bend gladly.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

Poems from the inner river

CRAVINGS

When they‘re done with you
They hate you
For showing them their darker side
And showing them how much they love it.

Never talk to them in the open
Only in secret
That‘s when they love you
That‘s where they crave it.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

MIND THE MOMENT

Your time will always pass
And it will pass at a time
Least convenient to you
Just as it came at a time
Not quite expected by you
And lasted for a length of time
Unappreciated by you.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije

YOU SAID

You said you were coming
I said I’d be waiting

You said you wouldn’t be long gone
I said I’d be waiting

You said it was only temporary
I said I’d be waiting…

Nine breaths
Nine years
Nine life-times

And I’m still waiting.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Where are you?

There is a song in my head
Yearning to be sung to you

There is a thirst in my Soul
Waiting to be quenched by you

There is a smile in my heart
Longing to be smiled at you

So where are you?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SEX AND UNHAPPINESS

How can that be?
All this intimacy
And still not happy

All these people
All these hearts
And still so lonely

All these words
All these conversations
And your life still has no meaning

When you’re not with the one you really need

And all that sex
Is just the expression
Of unhappiness.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNFOLDING SHADOWS (A Duet)

Duet with Helenvalentina

On the morning I ached
For the memory of the night
When my soul within was stricken
Before ineffable light
And the face of one remembered
Was unutterably bright

In the mounts of memory
Hidden, this valley
Where you sang a sun
To birth, rise in glory
Spirit of immortality
Half-seen-and-unseen you pull me

From these ancient hallways
I witnessed the reign
Of a long yearned for god child
Returned to this plain
And I fell, not from weakness
But from fervour regained

And yet in truth we both know
‘Tis all half-truth and metaphor
Cloaking what it claims to unveil
Our thirst for less and more
Less of hide-and-seek
And more of flame and fervour

Ah and here the sweet pain
That rends through my soul
The numinous so fleeting
To encompass us whole
And yet then it’s just whispers
Where shadows unfold.

———————————————-
by Helenvalentina and Che Chidi Chukwumerije
———————————————-

HURTING

When will he stop
Persecuting that guitar
His voice is hoarse
It hurts her

It digs a hole in her armour
Roughly
And scoops her out
Hoarsely

I wish I could remember him
In my dream tonight
When silence is wall
Enclosing me and she is gone

His voice is gruff
A street musician
Enjoying his moment on stage
Roughly.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.