Of Family Affairs

REGRET AND HOPE

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

I sat under a tree
Waiting for me
To come back to me

And while I was there
Two friends came to share
With me their hope and fear

A couple healthy and young
Who for long did long
To right a secret wrong

Early in their union
Confused they had given
A baby away for adoption.

And now though they try
And love and long and cry
The womb stays barren and dry

They’ve traced now doggedly
And found the family
Where their child grows happily

Today from afar
They saw them pass in a car
Saw how happy they are

Then sadly, quietly
They walked to the tree
Where I sat waiting for me.

And so did we three
Reflect thoughtfully
On history and destiny

And then we took heart
Upped and did depart
With courage and hope in our hearts.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

AS IF ALREADY WE KNEW

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

I remember you
Almost everyday.
Do thoughts forget
Their creators? Heart
And common sense agree
In me that they never could.
I remember you daily.

Our childhood and youth
Made my heart what
It is today. And though
You’re gone who knows
Where in the Beyond,
Still my memories of you,
Brother, know no boundaries.

How many times did
We watch Joe Panther?
Little did we know that
We were watching our future.
For, like Tiger died and left Joe,
One of us would go
And the other would lonely stay.

And I remember how quietly
We sat, together, trying
To hold back and conceal
Our tears that first time
We watched La Bamba –
As if already then we knew
How it would one day feel.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FARSIGHTEDNESS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

There is a Nigerian saying
What a child cannot see from a treetop
An adult can see from the ground
They usually say it with a gentle smile

The boy that I was, the child now in me
Was nourished by my mother’s love
While the man I was becoming, who now I am
Was nurtured by my father’s severity

So when they say true love is severity
And severity is sometimes the truest of love
I guess I know now, in retrospect,
What they mean to say between the lines

It is impossible to see both sides –
Day and Night – simultaneously
You have to experience them one by one
And then piece it together in your mind.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.