And then there she was, again.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
Poems
URBAN HAPPY
Broken bristles of bile
And a sundown smile
Was all she needed to discover
My words are quicksand
Too late. Too late. Too late. Too late.
Rough teeth, gated heart
Addicted to the back bite
All these people talking about heaven
Lying to themselves
And taking comfort in your confused belief.
But love will save me
Because I’m not a believer
That inner river bleeds me drunk
The city’s my village
What’s the big difference? Propaganda.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
ONCE
Some things happen but
Once
In a lifetime…
It was here, it was there
It was where?
It is where?
It is gone…
It will never return.
-che chidi chukwumerije
THE CAGE
Stony faces
Weak arms
Biggest Guns
Emptiness.
God has turned His Face Away!
Man at Mercy of the dark
Which virgins have oiled
Their lamps?
Empty streets – stoned
Cold overnight
Sleep of death
Who is beating my heart?
Technology will cure nothing!
E-speed all the faster to communicate
Emptiness and loneliness
From me to you, you to me.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
SEX AND UNHAPPINESS
How can that be?
All this intimacy
And still not happy
All these people
All these hearts
And still so lonely
All these words
All these conversations
And your life still has no meaning
When you’re not with the one you really need
And all that sex
Is just the expression
Of unhappiness.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
BLUE PLANET BECOMES GREENHOUSE
Blue planet
Becomes greenhouse
Too little room
For blossoming big mushroom
Acid rain
Too many old thoughts undecomposed
Poisoning today’s poison
Wait to exhale
The greenhouse is sweating
Hold that thought
Oxygen rapes carbon dioxide
CO2 shits O2; O3 too
Thermometer measures rising frenzy
Barometer cooling love.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
DADDY DEAR
Ashes to ashes…
Dust to dust…
Spirit to spirit…
Have mercy, o Holy Ghost!
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Another anniversary of the day I beheld for the last time the noble countenance of my father. Then we closed the coffin and confered his cloak into the warm arms of Mother Earth. And set the spirt free for the Flight back Home. Always in my fondest Memories, Daddy dear… 22.5….
(Pic: my first day in Boarding School, Sep 1995 – King’s College. Lagos)
POLAR BEAR
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.
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.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 