Poems

MIRAGES

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

So they faced me
If I was half a man, I would face them back
Good thing I was full man, not half
Or I would have fallen for the illusion
That you have to fight to be a man

So they turned away
If I had a little sense, I would beg for mercy
Good thing I had much sense, not a little
Or I would have fallen for the delusion
That you have to join the crowd to have a face

So they attacked the strangers
If I loved my kind, I would join in the attack
Good thing I loved humankind, not just my kind
Or I would have fallen for the mirage
That you have to hate strangers to love your own

The world is full of cynics
Who on earth still believes anything good?
Raise your hand in the air
And wave it like you just don’t care
If you really don’t care

There are many ways to fall asleep
Many ways to hide away
Many ways to deceive yourself into believing
Your mask is better than your face
Is better than yourself.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SAVING THE HUMAN RACE

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Another typhoon
Another tsunami
Another hurricane
Another earthquake
Another flood
Another fire
Another loss and pain and tragedy
Why am I still counting all this heartbreak?
We will all fall victim some day
To another natural accidental act of fate
It is our one united destiny upon this mysterious earth.

And then the wars and the migrations…
Some say they are human-made
But don’t blame only the countries involved
Many other people and governments secretly share the blame too.

We suffer as a continuum,
One humankind.

If these things don’t bring us together as one human race, then nothing will. Saving the human race is not just about saving lives. That is just the one half of it. The other is the anchor: It is about preserving the humanity in us when we let another’s suffering touch us and move us to help. We save two human beings. Them and us.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

HATRED HAS MANY BELIEVERS

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

Watch that hatred bang
Its head on the wall
Watch it struggle against a bridge
Over a gorge, dig a hole and fall
Hear it, baffled, ponder into the night.
The middle is thinning out into left and right
I know you don’t believe in the light
Because it’s hard to believe in something
You don’t understand –
It’s safer to hate in numbers
For the logic of hatred is easy to comprehend
Only a few will be left standing
After love has conquered the land.
Tread soft, haters, you’re walking on quicksand.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

IF I HAD ANOTHER CHANCE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Love, mountain of salvation
For human and every nation

Fountain of water of life
In every joy and every strife

School for the commencement of tomorrow
Full of fulfilment, free of sorrow

So if I had another chance
I’d do it all again
For without this rhythmn, this chant, this dance
Life’s sure a lane, but a lonely lane.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije,
May 1990.

TOMORROW

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Wait a day longer, Tomorrow,
If you can – for Today is sweet as comfort
Yet, no, blue shadow, you carry me forward
A lotus dream on a tide older than Ganges
And here I am again, on the cusp of dawn
Seeking a new song of morning.

When did I sow all these seeds ripening out of me?
And then Today whispers in repetitious verdure
Every new day you live emerged from your heart.
The beauty of pleasure and the beauty of pain
Is that they have to fight for you tomorrow again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SUBMISSION

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Her submission was gentle
Like the admission of a lie
With head bent down
And a whisp of shame on her lips
At first she refused to move her hips
And for a long time her eyes were closed
And yet, without saying a word
Or moving an inch, tenderly
Like the tide rolls in
She shed the finer layers of her skin
And let me in.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ANTI-GRAVITY

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There is a lightness of words
That, when it leans on you
Your heaviest resistance disintegrates
And you learn a new
Meaning of the word Gravity.

For the lighter wrestles the heavier
To the ground
The whisper beats the shout
To the sound
The rigid mind of intellect
Remains earth-bound
While the childlike heart of intuition
Freedom has found.

Like a flame dancing on water
Spirit is light as dove
And heavy as conscience.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SIRING

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Beautiful is the song of siring
In haunts of wanting
In gaunt bellies of starving need
My roots will ravish your burning greed

And then turn again, midnight
And accept the other side of the sun
Thrust out the other cheek
And if it hurts, let the pain make you weak

The weak will inherit the night
And the strong will be on their knees
Begging for more of yesterday
No to power, yes to play.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

REMEMBER YOUR DREAM

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You’ll never be a better man
Than the boy you once were
So, when you lose your way
The answer you seek is not far:
Remember the dream you once had
Between child- and adulthood
When the boy you once were
Had just awakened from his dream
And the man you now are
Had not yet forgotten that dream.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

YOUR OWN NOVEMBER

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Those trees
Changing leaves
Changing their minds
Turning times

Redressing time
But there’s an hour when
Fear leaves
Turned red

Fall yellow, weak, finished, all said and dead.
Then you change your mind too
After the thoughts are fallen
Your fearlessness stands naked hard in the bolding cold

Do you fear your own freedom, your own self-dependence?
Are you afraid of your own courage?
November strips the brave of their cowardice
And the cowardly of their bravery.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.