STRONG AND STRONGER

What yesterday I pushed away
Returns today, stronger
With even more hunger
Songs that I must play.

I have to move
Fly like a dove
Driven by love

I have to remove
Myself from illusion
Confusion.

Unfinished Verses stare at me
Repeated Verses endlessly.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOVE THOSE YOU HAVE TODAY

So, your enemy
Disguised as a friend
Separated you from
Your real friend, in the end.

Well, it’s all good, it’s all good
Wear not regret as a crown of thorns
Love those you have today.

What use is the morning’s advice
If you understand it only in the evening,
When it’s too late
You think?
The day is already gone

Well, it’s all good, it’s all good
Love the night too
The moon is a growing sun.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CLEAR SIGHT

What is this haze?
My mind becomes a maze
My feet remember their ways
By memory always –

The things we learned by heart
Shall be the surest chart
In our last days

The Adult becomes a child anew
And sees what the child once saw in the morning Dew.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

TENSE TIES

The quiet is defeaning
It bursts your eardrums
Eery and foreboding

Who will make the first move?
Who will change sides?
What is really happening?

History, like a confused child
Keeps coming back home
Looking for its parents

History, like a boomerang
Circles and circles the raised hand
Waiting for peace and rest.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE END MUST BE STRONG

The end must be strong
Or it will not be satisfied with itself
Shall return again
And again
Demanding to be ended…

The end that drags out must be allowed to drag out
That way we shall never forget
It is imprinted, chiselled, branded prime-deeply
Into heart and mind
Unforgettable, memorable, forever recognisable
Never to be dared again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

COLOURS

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.

STAY ON YOUR PATH

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.

A LITTLE WEIRD

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.

PEACE IS A STRANGER

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.

HUMAN LOVE

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.