When I tasted the spliff
Dragged it down to the level
Of my hungry black lips
It was a temptation it could not resist
Heavenwards it soared
With me, its quivering
Stub, on its mind
Where I met higher thoughts.
Write down
Your poems at the height
Of your madness
For after you return
You will not remember anymore
What thoughts those were
That came to you so naturally
When you were high in love.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
I’ve been biting like a volcano
Poetry has been crying lava
I’ve been biting hard
Stop! Stop bleeding me! Stop breaking me!
I want your nipple
Your lip, your ruthless restless tongue
Your thigh
And above it, your most tender secret
I want to reveal it, stop starving me.
The eruption was a corruption
Of merciful silence.
You should never have woken me up.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
My blood is blue river today
Every thought of you beknights me
Makes me feel like royalty
For thou art my queen…
If I strode across mountains
They would prostrate before my will
Proud to be footstool
To the queen’s lover
Naughty me
What a delicious secret
I feel like King Aka the Thirst
For I secretly drink from the queen’s fountains
My blood is blue river today
When it runs into you
You sigh…
At night I am thine king.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
What is it exactly that happened
In the moment
That we met ourselves again?
A very strange thing
Stranger than strange
A strange change
Came upon you and me
And now we are one.
What is love?
What is this love
That is greater than us?
What does it want with us? What?
I miss you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
How many women
Can quench my thirst?
How many loves
Can calm my racing heart?
How many homes
Can contain all my feelings?
My flaming heart
Will have its piece
My flaming heart
Will have its peace
O flaming heart
Be still, be still…
The wind is blowing
The river is flowing –
Peace, be still.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
It was autumn when we met
Trees were reddening
Leaves were falling
Hearts were aching to spill the truth
Autumn, autumn
Cooler nights
Autumn, autumn
Mistier heights
It was autumn when we met
Days were shortening
Eyes were focusing more sharply
On every strange new thing –
To discern the whole truth
Before the snow-blanket
Stored any promises
About to be made –
Diamonds and promises are forever.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
White night
Day bright
Moonsnowlight
Warm, moist and tight
She-sigh, she-bite
She might
Howl again tonight.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
No, my love, my passion
Did not run astray
I was the ocean
Washed up on many a needing bay.
The furrows of your frown
The wrinkles of your smile
Handlebars holding me down
For a short – only a short, fulgurant – while.
Wide wide inviting shore
I came in only once
Sometimes I yearn for more
When I’m far away under foreign suns.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Her submission was gentle
Like the admission of a lie
With head bent down
And a whisp of shame on her lips
At first she refused to move her hips
And for a long time her eyes were closed
And yet, without saying a word
Or moving an inch, tenderly
Like the tide rolls in
She shed the finer layers of her skin
And let me in.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Beautiful is the song of siring
In haunts of wanting
In gaunt bellies of starving need
My roots will ravish your burning greed
And then turn again, midnight
And accept the other side of the sun
Thrust out the other cheek
And if it hurts, let the pain make you weak
The weak will inherit the night
And the strong will be on their knees
Begging for more of yesterday
No to power, yes to play.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 