So the sun is yellow today
See that?
There – above the dark grey clouds
Beyond the mists and fog –
See that?
There – outside the boundary of your brooding thoughts
Beyond the clutches of your sorrow
If you look through your depression –
So plain to see,
The corner of your unsmiled smiles
Tugging at your lips
Lifting your lids – look, look
Above the tree tops in the jungle of your sadness –
Don’t you see?
The sun is golden yellow today.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
When they seek bread
You hesitate to speak
Of the bread of life
For they look you in the eye
And say
Can’t you see that I’m hungry?
How can you make
The spirit strong
When the body is still so weak?
And so you fall silent
And wait with the rest,
For the rest, in peace…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There will be brief sudden moments
Of big aching dreams, they will
Tear you out of darkest despair
Remind you of the throbbing urge
That is your second heart.
An unexpected warm sunny day in winter
That seems to say: Shivering spark, I am
Summer’s promise sent ahead of time
An emissary of hope, here to remind
You to keep the faith.
Strengthened by quietness
You face the dark, and you laugh
And you say: Deep, you are my cocoon
The womb of midnight wonder, from which
I shall emerge, your secret butterfly.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
He was my best friend
Yet when we parted
None gave news to the other
Of the path he charted
Where one went high
The other went low
And where one learned to lead
The other learned to follow.
She was a wild flower
But deep in her soul
She was a gentle morning
That made people whole
She fell in love with one
Then met the other
And fell for him too
Like he was her lover
Torn between a leader
And a follower
She learned with surprise that the higher
Is indistinguishable from the lower
The hunter is the hunted
The writer is the reader
The leader and the follower
Are both follower and leader.
He was my best friend
And though we walked separate ways
Destiny brought us together
Back to the same place.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I sat under a tree
Waiting for me
To come back to me
And while I was there
Two friends came to share
With me their hope and fear
A couple healthy and young
Who for long did long
To right a secret wrong
Early in their union
Confused they had given
A baby away for adoption.
And now though they try
And love and long and cry
The womb stays barren and dry
They’ve traced now doggedly
And found the family
Where their child grows happily
Today from afar
They saw them pass in a car
Saw how happy they are
Then sadly, quietly
They walked to the tree
Where I sat waiting for me.
And so did we three
Reflect thoughtfully
On history and destiny
And then we took heart
Upped and did depart
With courage and hope in our hearts.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
A gentle feeling of lullaby
A soothing wave, a beast asleep
A little child is passing by
Why does it weep?
Tears as large as sun and moon
Bright as heart, dark as dream
Butterfly trapped in a cocoon
Life is vanishing cream
We spend our youth growing old
Learning sophistication, hardening up
The night grows empty, proud and cold
Saddening up.
But precious moments will come sometimes
A tear, a thought, a child’s pure heart
A Memory, a bell that suddenly chimes
And tears your heart apart
Those who find the child again
Do so because they looked again
Through clouds of lies and inner pain
And wiped its tears of pain
And became normal again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The way is “how”
Even more than “what”
Even more than “where”
“What” without “how”
Is religion, is dogma
Will chain the spirit
“Where” instead of “how”
Will never lead to
The answer of “why”
For it is the doing
By oneself that yields alone
The personal Understanding of “How”
Just do to me that thing
That makes my spirit light
And, deep in me, I’ll understand
The way
Who needs teachers
When we’ve got horses?
Just teach me how to ride
Or I’ll learn it myself
Then we’ll ride out together
And see for ourselves
What the world has to offer to
Seekers and lovers.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
What is night?
Who gave it eyes
To see my soul?
Who gave it ears
To hear my inner voice?
Who gave it the sense
To smell my fears?
What is night
After midnight?
Who gave it arms
To hold me?
Who gave it words
To answer
The questions in my soul.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Illustration “What Is Night?” by Swana van Schaardenburg.
I know a girl
She loves to pray
And everytime we kiss
She runs away in shame
Because I don’t fit into her world
And she can’t look her leader
In the eye
When I’m on her mind.
Is your river flowing?
Should I… check again?
So she runs far away
And in the distance we can
Pretend
That she’s stronger than Shame –
She’s ashamed of herself
For not being herself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
On Bar Beach
On the shores of Lagos
Before the sea reclaimed the land
In those times
When all we had was soft white sand
On a moonlit night hard
Pressed I rode you on my Atlantic stallion
And the hooves that galloped across the sand
Cried of mermaids and whispers and sunless depths
And during the day I was at work
Renting my horse out to tourists
And middle-class upper-class noisemakers
And snobs and their children enjoying
A day at the sea, they pay to trot
Horseback upon the sea’s sand licking fingers –
And there you were, underneath
The thatch roof, selling fried buns, cold softdrinks
And ice cream and catching my eye
And we dreamed impatiently of the approaching night
Of long after midnight
And the lonely beach, the hoarse waves
The salty breeze, that soft pale sound
And the ride hard pressed upon
Our Atlantic steed, nostrils flaring into the wind
Stallion and mare
And the world is pounding the sand
And Lagos is fast asleep.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 