TRUST, BROKEN

Trust, broken.
Thoughts, woken.
Hurt, spoken.
Touch, token.

Unpreparable.
It comes from the one you don’t expect.
Unrepairable.
You’ll never again be able to not suspect.

Healing is an intellectual token
Once the trust has been broken.
Only the spirit can find a new rhyme
In its own way, in its own time.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

VANISHING

Don’t come back after I’ve got used to your absence
Your absence has become your strongest presence
If you return too late you’ll only find yourself gone
Replaced by memory, you’ll be the invisible one.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

LOVE HURTS

If love hasn’t driven you mad
Then you’ve never felt love before
If love hasn’t made you unbearably sad
Then love has not yet pierced your core
If love hasn’t tested the line you had
Between the good and the bad
and fundamentally changed you forevermore,
Then yours isn’t love, just a lore.

And the most astounding part
Is the dull ache somewhere in your heart
and the cold ashes that remain
when you walk down memory lane.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HUSH

The red rush
Autumn is on the thrush
Mush mush
And a flush of lush
You are more than a crush
- Hush.
I can’t brush you aside. 
I lied.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Poems from the inner river

PASSING RIFFS

Little moments of life
In the corners of strife
Little stripes of light
Hidden out of sight
Hope is a melody, a song
Where we all belong
Sing along, old and young.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HELP RHYME

Help comes in its own time
And in its own way
Often it prefers an irregular rhyme
Your tomorrow is its today
You hear the echo and miss the chime
How loudly did you pray?
Treasure the sour bitterness of lime
It is sweetness in delay.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

HELP COMES

Things that long seemed impossible
Manifest suddenly just before the window
Of opportunity closes. Many a miracle
Is undramatic, almost mundane, a narrow
Dirt track fit for walking or at best a bicycle
running beside a highway leading to hollow
Shallow goals for the spiritually superficial
And there right next to it, quiet and mellow
This simple path opens up with no noticeable
Features except this: it is your heart’s echo
Returning long after you sent an inaudible
Piercing cry for help. Swing chariot, swing low,
Swooping down out of the blue Inconceivable
And carrying me home to a better tomorrow.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

THAT ONE

You can come as close to me as you want
You still cannot get in.
You can go as deep into me as you want
But still deep within
My heart there is a door
And if you’re not the one it’s meant for
You can’t get in.

You can go as far away from me as possible
You still remain inside me
I can push you as far away from me as possible
But still deep inside me
There is one tender space
And you alone live inside this place
That is the home in me.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

JEWELS AND THORNS

Somewhere it‘s day
Somewhere it’s night
Some hearts are sad
Some with joy bright

But even as the world
Continues to spin
The happy turn sour
The sad grow a grin

Sometimes you’re glad
Sometimes you’re down
Jewels and thorns
Adorn the human crown

What makes us human?
The ability to weep
And then laugh again
For our heart is deep.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river

DRAW YOUR SECOND BREATH

When I first came to Germany,
I died, slowly and gradually.
And - this is the worst part -
I died alone, inside my heart.

Some might say it is a death
Akin to the planted seed
That dissolves inside the earth
En route to being freed;

Freed from the past and the old -
The path to growth into the new.
But death is empty, dark, cold.
And lonely. I never knew.

There is a path that leads back to life;
Beware - it is more painful than death
And it too with loneliness is rife
From which will emerge your second breath.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river