Poems

DIRT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

My hands are clean when
I rub them in the dirt
Washed in the tears of the homeless
Warmed by the laughter of the dignity
Of the downtrodden

Did they lose it all
Just to gain this clarity in their eyes?
Don’t lie to a person
Who has seen through all of society’s lies
They can unmask every government

They can unmask every family
They can unmask every act of friendliness
They know the difference between kindness
And charity. They can unmask you
And they can unmask me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RETIREMENT

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

His pride is on sale
And his shame
And on his broad frame
You can see him bearing his fate
With a brave face on display

Seventy years of age
All his fears have come of age
His hopes, dreams, plans, crumbled
But now he’s picked himself up again
And sits at the south train station

Easel, paint-brushes, stool, low table
But he holds his head up high
Give him a smile and a coin
And he’ll paint a portrait of you
That will stand the test of time

He: You speak good german
I: Can I write something about you?
He: Yes, but no names please. I
Have a granddaughter in Darmstadt, who
Doesn’t know what I do to survive.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LIGHT AND DARK

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Don’t ask me why I did it
You won’t get any answer
That makes any sense to you
I did it ‘cause I’m a dancer

Don’t ask me what kind of music
Plays underneath my propensities
The same hand fingering fine violins
Also thumbs the base of depravities

Don’t ask me how I can bear it
To be sometimes day, sometimes night
It is the fault of the sun
Who keeps me spinning around

Now I love being spun around
Locked in a battle that can’t be won
And can’t be lost, I love the light
Sometimes, and sometimes I fear it.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WATER BORN SPECIES

~ Che

 

Nestle CEO: Water is not a human right, should be privatized.
image

Because I thirst
For Love and Trust
When we meet I know
That your heart will quench
My thirst to quench your thirst
First –

For it is human
And it is right
To quench with Light
The thirst for Light
And we feel it like Water
Rejuvenating, refreshing
Flowing through us and
Keeping us alive –

Life startd in water
Millions of millions of years ago –
How many remember that?
We are all mermaids and mermen,
For we came out of the seas…

Mother Earth is our second mother
The first was the Ocean – Mother Water.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

SUN

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

Today I looked again
Through the rain and saw
The sun, but the sun wept
And it was the rain
Again

So I let the sun wet me
And every love that met me
Will never again forget me
The source of your flowing pain
Your sun, your happiness
And your rain.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LOOK AGAIN

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

And then you will see
That blind people see
The things that are invisible
To you and to me

And then you will hear
What the deaf loudly hear
When silence is all
That you and I hear

And then you will understand
That children understand
To store deep in their memory
Things they don’t yet understand

When a moment full of pain
Opens up your heart again
And you learn to look again
And see again, and hear again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RUNNING WATERS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

The story you told in the west
Is not identical
With the laughter you laughed in the north
Nor with the song you sang in the south
Nor with the thoughts you expressed in the east…

The language you spoke on the mountain
Is very different
From the tongue you mouthed in the valley
And from the violins you bowed through the woods
And the ballad you composed upon the blue-green meadows…

The roar you let out as you charged past us
Has a different meaning
From the groan the desert drew out of you;
And the whisper which you sighed in this grateful heart
Is not the same cry with which you flow into the sea.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

CLOSED CYCLES

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

You start. I’m scared, my friend,
Of finding the floor with my feet first
They might lead me astray

Doubleback. The start is the end
Why quench your longing with a thirst
That might never go away?

It’s hard to move
When you move together
One has to receive, and one has to give
Together in opposite directions

Well I can’t prove
If we do or don’t belong together
But cycles close, something had to give
And unmasked all our pretensions.

Missed opportunities
Mixed opportunities.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE INNER ROSE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Beware of those
Who like the wind does
To the petals of the rose

Like the mind blows
The poetry out of the prose
– Those who sense

The source of your strength
And work only to dent
And take away your self-confidence.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DIGNITY

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

He threw all the standard colourful
Discriminatory bigot remarks and innuendo
At me, then stepped back with a smirk
And waited to see it shame and hurt me

I knew this one had run out of arguments
And was fishing for the killer-blow
So I let it pass by without contact or impact
And leaned back and watched it confuse and hurt him

Some lines of attack grow old and stale
But some people just don’t get it
I speak back when speaking back will hurt you
And I ignore it when ignoring it will hurt you

Once upon a time, a man was humiliated
With fear and the theft of his dignity
But before he died, he whispered to me – You
Are my victory. Let my history be a lesson to you

Never go down without a fight. Never beg
For mercy when the killer points his gun
If they’re fair to you, be fair to them
But if they hurt you unprovoked – always always always

Somewhere
Someday
Somehow
Hurt them back.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.