Of Relationships

THE ONE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Groupies gave you pleasure, but
Did not make you happy –
Only lonesomeness explained why
Too many moons kill the night
Too many moons spoil the dark

Pluck your moons one by one
From the autumn of imagination
One by one, let them rise
One by one, let them pass

In the absence of one
I had them all, but in truth
I walked with none
Talked with none, loved none
And the night was dark as day

And the night called a new moon
And night after night she grew
More and more beautiful as she
Slowly came, slowly stayed, slowly passed…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FIVE THOUSAND KILOMETERS AWAY

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Your love was a noon dance
Abruptly torn out of the startled wind
And then your heart beat
Sorrows are stepping in rhyme with the breathless wind

They say it was an African evening
Moonrays on my yesterday, hush little girl
I can hear your sobs five thousand kilometres away
For night unites what day divides
Dreams reveal what the heart is hiding
I know you miss me still

Those morning strolls underneath the bougainvillea
Golden teardrops bloomed along the empty street
The hibiscus was our only guardian
The day you became a woman and I a man.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SUN

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

Today I looked again
Through the rain and saw
The sun, but the sun wept
And it was the rain
Again

So I let the sun wet me
And every love that met me
Will never again forget me
The source of your flowing pain
Your sun, your happiness
And your rain.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CLOSED CYCLES

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

You start. I’m scared, my friend,
Of finding the floor with my feet first
They might lead me astray

Doubleback. The start is the end
Why quench your longing with a thirst
That might never go away?

It’s hard to move
When you move together
One has to receive, and one has to give
Together in opposite directions

Well I can’t prove
If we do or don’t belong together
But cycles close, something had to give
And unmasked all our pretensions.

Missed opportunities
Mixed opportunities.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

IT WAS IMPORTANT

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

When the cloud waved goodbye
To the sky, turned to rain
And fled to earth, it said to sky
I’m not going back
I’m moving on

When I left you, changed
And came back into myself
It was important for me to let you know
I was not going back
I was moving forward.

The old is not old
When seen with new eyes.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FORGIVENESS

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

That blossom
That let go of the tree
And fell to earth
Is forgiveness

That recognition
That pain was the unavoidable teacher
Is forgiveness

That cleansing tear
Is forgiveness.

But I never want to see you again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SPACE

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

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

~ Che ~ 7 Comments

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.

FAMILIAR INTIMACY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

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.

ELOPERS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

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.