Poems

MASKING PRIDE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

What’s behind the veil?
Nothing. The veil is your face
I don’t need a mask
My face masks my thoughts

The reason why I don’t hide things
Is because the best hiding places
Are out there in the open
That’s why you don’t see it

You don’t believe the things I tell you
Because I tell them to you
But if I were to hold them back
You would start to look for them in my Silence

And you would look and look
Until you became a prisoner of my Silence
So why don’t you appreciate it
When I just tell you in plain simple words

That I love you?
I killed you when I took off your mask
Now you want to kill me, by putting
A new different one back on.

But I already saw the girl within
Hidden deeper than shame and sin
Struggling with the pain within
And Pride is her middle name.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FAMILIAR INTIMACY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Why do people grow lonely
In a union warm and homely?
I have heard of walls that rise
So slowly it comes as a surprise
To find out that familiarity kills
The very intimacy that it fulfils.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

ELOPERS

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

It is a story that always breaks and
Runs away from its observers
Like the baffling speed of light

No outsider ever understands what is happening
When it’s happening
Always it breaks the fabric of logic

Only the two lovers themselves, only they
Who follow the inner call of shared love
Understand the logic of magic.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

AGAINST POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS

~ Che

Political correctness
Has fallen out of favour

Racial correctness
Is the new In-thing
The new hypocrisy
The new incarnation of evil

All you clever cowards
Claiming it’s time to be politically Incorrect
You have simply replaced one evil
With another –
Racial correctness
Cultural correctness
Religious correctness
Narrow-hearted correctness

That’s what brings in the Votes now.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DIVIDE AND RULE

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Look for someone who has ambition
Then use him – or her, my dear – to block the ascent of
The one who has true ability.
For, the one with genuine ability is
The real threat to you.

I reckon someone whispered these words into
The ears of every dictator and every colonizer
Every leader and every conqueror and
Every CEO and manager, supervisor and general manager
That ever lived

Or else they would not all be doing it
So excellently.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

DON’T SHOOT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

When a gun shouts
It sounds like a whip on crack
So why are you laying that wound
On your brother,
Brother?

You have none other than
The last one you just buried
Those graves are not for the brave
Your brother’s life is all you have,
Brother.

Soldier soldier don’t shoot
Fingerfood for thought is trigger for the unhappy
A life in exchange for a shot
And you call that a fair deal?
Poor substitute.

But they say, look here
We don’t like all these heavy words.
Give us laughter, give us comfort, give us food
Give us pride, give us a shining ring
Or, if you can, give us hope.

Someone has to get up
Someone has to get up first.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

SOLIDARITY WITH SELF

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

Your brother in the ghetto
Is still your brother –

He might not have attended
The same type of schools as you did

He might not have acquired
The same kind of polish as you did

He might not even know
That you’re not as different from him

As he thinks
He might think

What you think: you’ve become strangers
No. He is still your brother

And when a bullet comes in the dark
It can’t tell the difference between you and you.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

EDUCATION FOR ALL

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

They can’t read
But they can read

The signs on the wall
They can read between the lines
When the educated are talking
They can read your thoughts
In your eyes

When you’re lying to them
They just don’t have the words
To explain that all they need
Is a seed of true knowledge planted
Into their minds when they were young.

Someone has to walk ahead
When others are looking
For someone to follow.
How many generations will fall like
Autumn leaves, wasted beauty?

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

GHETTO BROTHER

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

In the ghetto
I get to see
The living me
Watching me with eyes
Wiser than the eyes watching me
Living my thousand lives
While I search in my mind for lies
With which to neutralise
The truth reflected back at me
By the other me.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

BUT YOUR HEART WILL FIND ITS PLACE OF PEACE

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

Where are we rushing to?
Death is waiting at the end anyway
Go there slowly
Enjoy the ride
Take long looks out of the window
Drink in the sunshine
Drown the moon in your soul and laugh
Out loud
Let the passing flower and
The passing cloud leave an impression
Upon your memory.
Pain is our ally when we look for love.

Remember, you will make mistakes
You will hurt the people you love
And they will hurt you back
And Regret will not heal the wounds
Or make anything better
Only worse
But your heart will find its place of peace
Someday
Somewhere
Somehow
Because I love you.
Even when I’m dying, still I love you to the end.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.