Distance
Brought me closer to you than
Romance
Ever did or ever could
Distance
Is more intimate than nearness
Substance
Needs space to come together
Distance
Is at the heart of our closeness
Long live the resistance
That makes the current of love flow.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
I saw loneliness tonight – she
Was sitting in the corner, in her fifties
Smoking a cigarette and watching
Laughter dancing on the young dancefloor.
For a while, her husband sat next to her
And she smiled and joked with him and
His friends. When they left to get a drink
She sat quietly in her thoughts and
As her eyes roved quietly over the
Dancefloor, our eyes met. And then I saw
Loneliness.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Why do people grow lonely
In a union warm and homely?
I have heard of walls that rise
So slowly it comes as a surprise
To find out that familiarity kills
The very intimacy that it fulfils.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
It is a story that always breaks and
Runs away from its observers
Like the baffling speed of light
No outsider ever understands what is happening
When it’s happening
Always it breaks the fabric of logic
Only the two lovers themselves, only they
Who follow the inner call of shared love
Understand the logic of magic.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Where are we rushing to?
Death is waiting at the end anyway
Go there slowly
Enjoy the ride
Take long looks out of the window
Drink in the sunshine
Drown the moon in your soul and laugh
Out loud
Let the passing flower and
The passing cloud leave an impression
Upon your memory.
Pain is our ally when we look for love.
Remember, you will make mistakes
You will hurt the people you love
And they will hurt you back
And Regret will not heal the wounds
Or make anything better
Only worse
But your heart will find its place of peace
Someday
Somewhere
Somehow
Because I love you.
Even when I’m dying, still I love you to the end.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Brief was our meet
Thick and soft, quick
The covers fell
And when it was over
There were no seeds left over
That fell
No strings
No roots
No fruits
Yet something holds me still there
They way you smiled and sadly whispered
So you’ve forgotten me now.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Silent things, unnamed
Unnameable, nameless
Lie between us like yesterday
Why does yesterday
Continue always to exist?
Why doesn’t it just go away forever?
Why must we understand yesterday
In order to understand today?
Why do we even bother to seek for
Understanding amongst our human selves?
Mystery
The very mystery itself, no answer
Round and round. I can’t bear it
When we fight, dear.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
From my collection of Poems: WRITING IS THE HAPPINESS OF SORROW.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 