Every new thing you meet Is an old thing to someone else What to you is a new beat Others have rocked from ever since Your new love is someone’s old flame Burning low but burning still Because people stay the same Captive to their former thrill Battles you assumed were done Suddenly resurface demanding review Friends you thought were long gone Suddenly come again to protect you Nothing you meet is new It is old to someone and to itself It might even be old to you But you simply don’t realise it yet. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Of Relationships
THE POND
Your voice is in my heart
Although we’re farther apart
Than a mind can see, can scan,
Hearts with ease infinity will span
Between Earthlives and Beyond
Across universes spirits bond
Like lily leaves on a little pond.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
THE STRANGE CHANGE
When the person you knew disappears and is no more than memories and pictures and daily through the door a stranger now in and out walks while in the old voice of before this stranger also with you talks welcome to disorientation shore. People really change, it is no myth - Experience totally today the person you’re now with - No human truly stays a monolith. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
YOU ARE THE ONE I‘M THINKING OF
The light goes on and off like a shivering bulb in a cold room Your heart is not enough to beat back the nocturnal bloom Dawn, the dusk is tough the mother of both glow and gloom Lover, your mouth is rough when you kiss at night you don’t know whom Shadows long call your bluff but your birdsong cries out mushroom I’m you’re d’healer I’ve got the good stuff sweeping you off your feet like your bride broom Yes, you are the one I’m thinking of When the new moon starts to wax and loom. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
THE FORGOTTEN YOU
How could I forget you?
And forget that I forgot you?
Even this I forgot.
Forgot your face
Forget your eyes
Forgot your ways
Forgot our ties
Forgot the words we spoke in the night
Forgot the cadence of your voice’s delight
Forgot your touch, so deep, so light
I did not even remember you as a dream
You just were never there it would seem
Memory is a fast-flowing vanishing stream.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
IN YOUR WORLD
In your world I’m weird I write poems everyday Money to me is not wealth Politics is an illusion they play Religions are superficial God is different from what they say Intimacy is often artificial Your way is not my way I don’t attach, I don’t detach I seem to neither go nor stay And yet somehow I still touch You much deeper than they. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
SEX IS SECONDARY
Sex is secondary Mission is primary It is not who shares your bed but who shares your path you should wed Or you’ll suffer the aftermath. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
DISTANCE HAPPILY
Family finally - Friendship verily - Distance happily - Thought is vicinity Feeling is duplicity Emotion is complicity Intuition is veracity. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
NO HOLDING BACK
Do your poem
Like you do your woman
Like you do your man
Strong and Tender
Deep and Intense
Lovingly dismember
In the present tense
No holding back
Do your poem
Like you do them
That love you back.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
DRIFTED APART
The truth must not only be true But it must also appear to be true - Or it will look like a lie. You must not only be you But you must also act like you Or you will feel like a lie. A small shift A big rift Swift A brief lift A Greek gift Drift. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
