Pain will take
The pain away
Pain is medicine
When I’m in pain
Punishing shins
Slowing me down
Punish me, shins
The way is shorter
When the hurt is hurter
Pain is pain’s
Brutal painkiller.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Poems
A DEEP AWESOME SILENT MOON
This night’s moon
Is wet and red
Pensive, heavy
Soaked in a silent mystery
And a bloody cry as of hunting wolves
Unheard of and staining
The blue-black canvas of the tree-dotted nightscape
She struggles
This fascinating moon
To lift herself above the palms
And jab
Our consciousness
With wishes from the embers
Of the invisible weavings of life
The faithfulness
Of the ever-returning moon…
Soon the tree-tops
Who now stare levelly at the moon
Will also have to raise their eyes up
If they want to see
Her face…
O lovely awesome red moon
Rising above the palm trees
Ascending again
Sink like the silence of peace
Deep into my breast.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
SELF-RECONCILIATION
It took a long time
For pain
To come back home
I had forgotten
All about it
I was not prepared
But like a thief
Stealthily it crept up
On me, oh my soul
Like a thief
Yes it stole its way
Back into my soul
I’m strong because I’m weak
I hurt because I seek
I’m not a loner, I’m lost
I did not break – because I believed
I’m broken – because I believed
I’m woken, I’m empty
All that’s left is just me
Asking me to look at me
Take good care of me
Look at me
Get to know me
For the first time in my life.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE STRANGE BEAUTY OF A GOOD WOMAN
What, is it?
Struck, like thunderbolt
Thunder, and lightning
Yet gentle, as falling snow
Omnipresent, like substance
Everywhere, you turn it is
You cannot, hide away
From it
Once, it has caught you
In its tender, net –
It is love, some say
Pure, selfless love, they say
It is strange, is all I know
Makes, you ashamed
Afraid
And, after you have conquered, yourself
Weathered, shame and fear
It makes, you humble
And all you want, to do now
Strange
Is serve, the Almighty.
This is what, it does to you
This is what, it does to you
The strange beauty
Of, a good woman.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
DETACHED
I saw a child
Waiting at a bus-stop
Waiting after school
Waiting in the woods.
Child, what are you
Waiting for?
I’m waiting for my mother
Waiting for my father
To come and pick me up
Take me home.
The child’s eyes
Were wide and trusting
Full of hopes and questions
And fears.
And the child said
With pleading eyes:
I really should not speak
To strangers.
The years have passed
And now when I pass by
I see a quiet adult standing there,
Smiling, detached, lonely.
And I wonder
Whatever happened to that child?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
PRAYER AT DAWN
A slice of moon for breakfast
A dotted star and tea
A blue-grey sky that will not last
For soon the sun will be
The slice of moon is smiling
And as it smiles it fades
The words are dilly-dallying
And my pen hesitates
By what premise did I now
Presume myself a man
And yet I promise, nay I vow
To serve the Son of Man
The slice of moon has disappeared
Did I just say a prayer?
I long to touch lives, that be shared
The music in my ear.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
LOST
You don’t know
How it feels
To feel abandoned
Disoriented, homeless
Unprotected and lost
Do you?
It’s the worst thing
That can happen to
A child, a youth in
The making, a heart
In the breaking, an
Adult early forsaken.
It follows you
All your life
Like a boat sailing
And sailing and sailing
Looking, for land
To go ashore, never-finding
Sometimes I see
A pair of eyes
And I know that
You too were abandoned
And have never found
Your way back home again
The world is full of
Loneliness and stories
Half-written…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ONE SONG
If music is the universal language
Then who will teach
Me how to interpret
For example, say,
The language of the stars
The language of water
The body-language of true lovers
The language unspoken
And the language unheard…?
If music be the universal language
How come no-one hears
The songs of heaven
That are sung in celestial gardens
And descend into the earth every new day?
Or, if we hear
How come we do not understand?
It is very strange
This strange communication gap
Because everywhere I turn
Every sound is music
And every language is a song
More or less forgotten
More or less alive.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
EARTHING
She loves pain
To feel it I mean
Like earth loves rain
To feel it she says
Hurt me before you love me
Hurt me if you love me
Pain is my mantle
Break it open to reach me
Light my candle
Read my signals I’m screaming
Half her lovers think she’s joking
Until she ups and walks away
The other half keep her running
Round and round in circles
Seeking silence.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WHAT IS MUSIC?
I do not know
What music is…
But I do know that
But for my love for music
I would be dead.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 