The ice
Spice of my life
Has thawed
Underneath my paw.
As I claw myself back to life
All I need from you
Is a splice
Of sacrifice.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
Poems
DEATH THREAT
Wanted!
Dead or alive
Hunted!
Run for your lives
Haunted!
The earth is a house of mirror
The hammer of horror
One in four mammals under threat
That was a death sentence
Crouching in the park
Lunging out of the dark
Four in four mammals under pressure
Self-preservation
Undaunted!
– che chidi chukwumerije.
SONS OF MOTHERS
Set the trap
In the taste
In the tastes.
They’ll eat out of your hand
And see you
And seek you
In everything, in every woman, in every land.
Make them enemies of their father
They’ll see him
They’ll fight him
They’ll hate him in every man
Even in themselves.
Crown their hearts
With their father’s good image
They’ll revere him, uphold him, replicate him
In themselves, their sons too, their world, the world.
Power is subtle
When subtly broken
Or subtly woken.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
IT’S A PLANET
It’s a planet
Because it’s all about
The plant
Each and every one of them
The way life planned it
So what’s our plan now?
Bring back the plant to planet man
Solution in resolution
A planet in a plan
Universe in verse – reversed.
The planet lungs to breathe again
Plants expiring on planet man
The screen is green
Reality ours to imagine and make
Plant a good seed
Breathe out
Greenscene is backdrop
Every drop will wrench your thirst
Drop back
Because it’s melting
It’s a planet
We did not plan it
And yet we dammed it
But it’s all about the plant
If it’s a good seed, plant it.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
IT IS WELL
When blood like a river
Attendeth my soul
When mirrors
Turn backwards and cold
Whatever my lot
Let the past work away
It is well, it is well
With my goal.
Out of hell, burning bell
Wring my soul, ring my soul
Though we fell, now ’tis well
With our goal.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
* inspired by Spafford’s 19th century eponymous hymn.
TIRED OF WORDS
A moment of poems passes away
And the nostalgia doth arise
Always the same and always, I pray
That it again’ll tomorrow materialise
Cross my path, call of heaven
Breath of heaven, touch of heaven
Cross my path again, from heaven
Whisper someone, touch me, whisper, free me
Break me loose from the cycle of words
I want the Other Poem.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
ANGEL
I still think about you
Still remember your heart
Special it was, like a house of virtue
And, like all things special, it did up and depart
But the longing, the softening, the striving , the yearning
Some start the downing, some start the burning
But you by-passed the normal poles, and noiselessly, soft
Noiselessly opened and bore me aloft.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
PLAYGROUNDS
There is evil in the air
It chokes your breath in unexpected places
A playground, full of hard adult eyes
Watching, and avoiding, each other
While playing children loudly try
To shout the intruders merrily out –
One by one each parent
Picks up its child and hurries home
Away from this place
And no-one can say really why
The world became like this
Or when. It’s the future, and we’re there.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
ACTING
If you keep it free and open
It will find a friend
It will make a headway into
Yet another start
If you act like you were rhyming
Though you’re far from it
Those who dance along will wander
Why no-one else hears
The masterpiece within the picture,
Why nobody feels
The music in the melody
The magic in the air.
—————
che chidi chukwumerije
—————
IN THE MORNING
The things we know in the morning
The moment we awaken
And from somewhere else are returning
But not yet quite retaken
By the world of thoughts that ever crowd around us
During the hours while we are fully day-conscious
Those things we know as sleep departs
Are as true as true can be
The Hour of Awakening to us imparts
The starkest clarity
It may be painful, may be pleasant
It may be quite surprising
But it is always true and doesn’t
Require verifying
Because if you did awake aright into this certainty
Events themselves will prove to you their authenticity
My thoughts are clear as sleep departs
And I see without guile
Displayed before me all those hearts
With whom I frown or smile.
————–
che chidi chukwumerije
————–
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 