Ashes to ashes…
Dust to dust…
Spirit to spirit…
Have mercy, o Holy Ghost!
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Another anniversary of the day I beheld for the last time the noble countenance of my father. Then we closed the coffin and confered his cloak into the warm arms of Mother Earth. And set the spirt free for the Flight back Home. Always in my fondest Memories, Daddy dear… 22.5….
(Pic: my first day in Boarding School, Sep 1995 – King’s College. Lagos)
Set the trap
In the taste
In the tastes.
They’ll eat out of your hand
And see you
And seek you
In everything, in every woman, in every land.
Make them enemies of their father
They’ll see him
They’ll fight him
They’ll hate him in every man
Even in themselves.
Crown their hearts
With their father’s good image
They’ll revere him, uphold him, replicate him
In themselves, their sons too, their world, the world.
Power is subtle
When subtly broken
Or subtly woken.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Where she is is home,
Hope, I shall no longer roam
Any further, she’s my world,
My home, around me curled,
Unfurled, wanting me bad,
I, this never-ending fairy-lad.
Home, where she is is
Home, hope, land of bliss, is
Where I stay, I roam no more,
I return home and want no more.
– che chidi chukwumerije
When you already have
What you’re looking for
What are you still looking for?
What are you still living for?
Some live to find – when they find
Their life finds meaning
Some live to seek – when they find
Their life loses meaning
They must seek a new meaning
To their lives
To appreciate what you already have
To cherish it, to nourish it, to
Protect it, maintain it, value it and
Valorise it
Make something more out of something less.
Sometimes there is nothing better
Out there.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
He’s lying in the midst of his toys
And what language do they speak
To one another? They seem to understand
Each other. It’s his smile
That makes me strong.
I’m glad he can’t interpret my frown
When I look out of the window
Into the world, into the times –
Yes I’m glad for him
Let him store happiness in his heart today.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
A dog is barking higher up
On the mountain
A worried sounding woof
Every few seconds
I wonder if someone is missing again
Down in the valley there is a train
That rushes past. It sounds like
A river every few minutes
Carrying someone’s dreams into
Another person’s thoughts
I’m trying not to pay attention to the
Conversation taking place beside me
The emotions are strong
Father and daughter gently tying
Up the memories of years past
Just like I waited six days
To finish this poem
So they also waited all these years
To finally say, at the departure, I love you
Please forgive me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
How many people live in
Your household?
Just you and your partner and
Perhaps your children too?
Love children of all types.
Or do your friends too
Live with you there?
And have your parents and families too
Openly or secretly moved in and
Joined in your decision making?
And are strangers the ears of
Your intimacy?
And is the world with you in
Your privacy?
And yet you continue to wonder
What went wrong on the
Threshold to Paradise
And where did the intimate home go?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
A woman loved a man
And a man loved a woman
They vowed the sacred vow:
Marriage.
Then the woman balked and
Suddenly decided to ask her brother
First… –
She asked him
And he promised to give her the answer
The next day
For he was baffled by the question.
Then he went to a wise man
And questioned him thus:
“Please, Sir, if your sister asks you whether
She ought to marry a man whom
She says she loves,
What would you tell her?”
The sage studied the man’s features thoughtfully
For a while, then with an introspective look
Said:
“I would tell her not to marry him.”
“What reason would you give her for this, Sir?”
“Truly, I would give her anything
But the true reason,
For that would render it meaningless.”
“And what, Sir, is the true reason?”
“Marriage is a sacred, mysterious bond which,
Once taken,
Is embedded forever in the eternal Silence!
It therefore concerns only three:
The man, the woman and the Creator!
Once one of these two humans
Requires the opinion of a third human
To take this step
Then he or she is not yet ready
For Marriage!”
And so, the next day
When the man’s sister came for an answer
He told her mysteriously
Wisely nodding his head:
“My sister, in your best interest
I advice you not to marry
Your fiancé.
But ask me not why. Just believe me.”
She became destabilized and confused, very…
For she loved her fiancé
Excruciatingly.
But she had her own restless, defiant sage
In her own heart too;
And she decided that her brother was wrong
She went ahead and married her loved one
Resolutely, calmly
Proudly.
Wondering how she could ever have doubted
Or asked a third person,
A stranger to their love.
Invited to her wedding soon after
Her surprised brother,
On arriving
And meeting her fiancé for the first time,
Suddenly became deeply confused…
And now he addressed his sister’s laughing husband again:
“You?… You!
Incredible!
But I thought you told me
To tell my sister not to marry you?”
But the sage laughed
And said
In a voice full of respect:
“It turns out that my wife
In the end
Believed her heart
More than she believed the words
Of the forbidden third human…
Because she loves me.”
And, so saying,
The young sage went home joyfully
With his wise new wife.
-Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Upon the fields and meadows
Saw I two black sheep
Alone, together
Feeding, side by side
And then evening was near
The shepherd
Slowly shaved the wool
Off one of them
And led it away
And now when I look into the fields
And meadows
Of my youth
All I see is one black sheep
Grazing alone…
Brother
I still miss you –
Except that the fields and meadows
Have become bare
And the second black sheep is gone too…
And the wind is cool
Upon the mountain-top…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
When the rock was walking stoically
Through the mountain of time I was
On its back, and thought the ground was still
Beneath my running legs –
Restless was my heart
For I felt yours beating in it
And mighty were the loud congas
Drumming out my thoughts.
Yet there is one quiet thought
Too deep to be breached
Too quiet to be heard
By any but me.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 