There are thoughts that define
And there are thoughts that defy…
There are hearts that deny
Hearts that desire
And hearts that never run dry –
And there are hearts
That run dry –
But I won’t cry.
There were thoughts that struck me
Thoughts that thunderstruck me
And left me dumbstruck –
These are the thoughts that stuck to me…
But if we say sometimes yes
Sometimes no
Sometimes…
Yes sometimes no sometimes yes.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The words will still be the one
The one to articulate Silence
When we sing the praises of Silence
We do so with words
The strange bird will still be the one
The one to carry your story forward
Even though you ostracized him
He will preserve your story
When strangers rule the world.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
You have to be a little weird
To be normal
A little fat to be healthy
A little perverted to love fully
A little poor to be rich
And a little me
To be you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
How much is peace worth?
How many countries on earth?
How many blood-sprinkled shirts?
How many interrupted births?
How many truths? How many lies?
How many will regret a compromise?
What price is worth the prize?
This is the danger:
Peace is a stranger
On earth.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Because I love you
I love your scars
Trophies of all your wars
Because I love you
I love your ugliness
In and out of your dress
They make you special
And beautiful in my eyes.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The bullet leapt
Wept the barrel with
Sorrow’s silent shriek protesting
The bullet’s hunger
Feeding the
Blood bank’s Belly, saving
Not life, but your account
Of – what? – your life?
Countless Cowries
Bagged in bloated
Human hide
Yet not enough to buy back
Recompense.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Never look too deep into another person’s eyes
Never follow far the trade another person plies
Never question hard the words another person says
Never study long the games another person plays
Never think a king has all it takes to be a king
Never think a singer always has a song to sing
Never think a warrior has a warrior-heart in him
Never think a woman has true purity within
Never expect that your friend considers you their friend
Never expect that your guard will guard you to the end
Never expect that your secrets will be safe with me
Never expect that you can honour your vows truly
Because, my brother, man has turned into a beast of late
Because, my sister, yesterday we wandered out a gate
Because, my dear friend, there’s a new colour surrounding us
Because, my friend, people of planet earth have lost the Cross.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
See there, a stream
It flows only at night
How can this be?
Who melted my frozen pride?
Who taught me how to cry
When the night is singing?
The book of my life
The pages start revealing
Every petal of blossoming pain
The seed was mine, I broke the ground
And sealed it over with a pound of pride
Not a drop of remorse
Or so I thought.
Yet see, there, a stream
It flows at night in my loneliness
Pride thaws and falls like rains of regret.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
You had to go to hell
To get the truth
After your ejected it
In heaven.
Don’t you know?
That’s the way it works
My friend
Hope you get it now.
Hell is Heaven’s secret school.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Your love was most present
In my life’s soup
When you were quietly absent
Your sea is a strong wall
Too deep, too intense, too wide
I don’t want it all
A pinch of you
On my flaming restless tongue
My dear, will do
You salivate my secret cult
With your infrequent invisible visits
Like salt.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 