Of human beings

HOLD MY HAND

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

image by 851877/Pixabay

I just feel hope in my heart
Because that’s all I have left.
So I hold on to hope, my wine
And I smile even though in my heart
I harbour a river of tears
Ships adrift in rudderless cry
And I can’t find the shore

So I’m drunk on hope
And I’m high on hope
Some call it illusion
Or even delusion
But we who have a vision
We call it hope
All we have, all we need, is hope.

And then in the morning
I wake up with a hangover
Looking for new hope. Hold my hand.
My ship is looking for land.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

 

(Image courtesy 857818/Pixabay)

MADIBA

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

image
Kindness was his rod
With it he parted the red sea
Kindness was his road
Wide enough for all of humanity

Step forth, step forth, step forth
West, East, South, North.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNYIELDING

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Words never stopped anyone
Whose heart was a gun
He’s just out to kill someone

Night never scared anyone
Whose heart was a sun
He’s just out to bring a new dawn.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SAVING THE HUMAN RACE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Another typhoon
Another tsunami
Another hurricane
Another earthquake
Another flood
Another fire
Another loss and pain and tragedy
Why am I still counting all this heartbreak?
We will all fall victim some day
To another natural accidental act of fate
It is our one united destiny upon this mysterious earth.

And then the wars and the migrations…
Some say they are human-made
But don’t blame only the countries involved
Many other people and governments secretly share the blame too.

We suffer as a continuum,
One humankind.

If these things don’t bring us together as one human race, then nothing will. Saving the human race is not just about saving lives. That is just the one half of it. The other is the anchor: It is about preserving the humanity in us when we let another’s suffering touch us and move us to help. We save two human beings. Them and us.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HATRED HAS MANY BELIEVERS

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

Watch that hatred bang
Its head on the wall
Watch it struggle against a bridge
Over a gorge, dig a hole and fall
Hear it, baffled, ponder into the night.
The middle is thinning out into left and right
I know you don’t believe in the light
Because it’s hard to believe in something
You don’t understand –
It’s safer to hate in numbers
For the logic of hatred is easy to comprehend
Only a few will be left standing
After love has conquered the land.
Tread soft, haters, you’re walking on quicksand.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

REINCARNATION

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

How many lives did you need
To come alive in this one?
How many graves are marked
With those names
Which you will never know again
Never bear again?
Countless and faded.

Death, that great equalizer
Will remix your cards again
So before your life be lived in vain
Make something good of this birth this time.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

GROUPS OF US

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

How deep is homogeneity?
Does the colour of our skin
Express our similarity
Or mask the differences within?

How deep is nationality?
Does the passport we share
Stamp an ideological ethnicity
Or is it convenience out of fear?

Some plant gardens of roses
Some love lilies alone
Another meadow composes
A bouquet of everyone

Who can say rose gardens
Are prettier than plains
That lilies alone gladden,
Or a field that all contains?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EVERYONE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Everyone is a little deaf
To some other person
A little blind
To some very important lesson
A little dumb
And someone’s fool
And a little numb
And sometimes a little too cool.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FALLEN THROUGH THE CRACKS

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Originally I used to cover my face
I was new to the street
A freshly fallen angel –

Would old friends pass this way
And recognise me? Old colleagues?
Old neighbours with whom I shared
A beer and a philosophical hour
Reflecting on the vicissitudes of life
The changing destinies of human lives
Society, politics, the role of science in
Religion, male jokes about women
And feeling entitled to be fortunate.

Will they recognise me now, when
They pass this way and hurry past the
Wretched beggar on the street corner
Maybe throw him a coin but avoid his intrusive eyes?
Opposites don’t match, is their marching song
Did they recognise me in me?

But I don’t avoid their eyes anymore
The eyes of my yesterday
Not anymore
Not anymore.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SURVIVAL

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

What don’t I know
About you is what
I silently ask myself
Each time you ask me
What I’m thinking
As I think about you

How many wars
Have you fought, won and lost?
How many lives have
You taken, how many given?
How much hunger did you endure
To nourish so much anger?

How many loves have pierced you?
How many wounds are
Dripping a trail back to
How many acts of survival?
All I see is the smile in your eyes
And the hope in your heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.