Yes it was
A gone cause
Broken laws
Unbroken again
Spoken in vain
Your lovely name
Ours was
More than just a game
Hitherto thitherto
Lonely walk
Lonely stalk
Whereto?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Of Pride
BRAVE ONE
Your secrets
Give them power over you
When you lose your fear of your secrets
They lose their power over you
No-one is feared more
Than one who says yes I did it, so what?
You can break a warrior’s shell
But you cannot make the warrior fear you as well.
Breathe out, brave one, and live some more
Your weaknesses and your strengths are all you’ve got.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
BITTER
Do you know that never-ending road?
Do you know that ever-increasing load?
Do you know that pain when you receive pain?
Do you know that pain when you give pain?
Do you know that quarrel that can’t be settled?
Are you sore? Bitter? Embattled?
Do you want to hurt them back?
And hurt each time you hurt them back?
How elusive it is, no matter where you look
The last page stays missing in a riddled book
Vengeance will drive you to the ends of the earth
But won’t show you the way back to your hearth.
Revenge is its very own bittersweet revenge
The irony of the avenger – cruel, sad and strange:
To be trapped, a victim of your own vendetta
And wonder why it still doesn’t make you feel better.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
RETIREMENT
His pride is on sale
And his shame
And on his broad frame
You can see him bearing his fate
With a brave face on display
Seventy years of age
All his fears have come of age
His hopes, dreams, plans, crumbled
But now he’s picked himself up again
And sits at the south train station
Easel, paint-brushes, stool, low table
But he holds his head up high
Give him a smile and a coin
And he’ll paint a portrait of you
That will stand the test of time
He: You speak good german
I: Can I write something about you?
He: Yes, but no names please. I
Have a granddaughter in Darmstadt, who
Doesn’t know what I do to survive.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
MASKING PRIDE
What’s behind the veil?
Nothing. The veil is your face
I don’t need a mask
My face masks my thoughts
The reason why I don’t hide things
Is because the best hiding places
Are out there in the open
That’s why you don’t see it
You don’t believe the things I tell you
Because I tell them to you
But if I were to hold them back
You would start to look for them in my Silence
And you would look and look
Until you became a prisoner of my Silence
So why don’t you appreciate it
When I just tell you in plain simple words
That I love you?
I killed you when I took off your mask
Now you want to kill me, by putting
A new different one back on.
But I already saw the girl within
Hidden deeper than shame and sin
Struggling with the pain within
And Pride is her middle name.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 