If you think of how many times God has forgiven you… So many sins, so many crimes God has forgiven you… In this and in former lifetimes God has forgiven you… You would have more compassion for your fellow humans’ crimes of reason and sins of passion. For your fellow humans you would reduce your judgement’s ration. For you’re fellow humans. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poetry
GOING SOLO
Once he doesn’t care anymore All the beauty in the world becomes a bore Every tender touch pinches a sore Promises of true love sound like folklore. He walks out forever through the door He totally overturns what he is living for When he has been wounded to the core Every woman now seems to him to be a whore. Fitting in with the act turns into a chore He rips off the mask which once he wore The mask his heartbreak from his heart tore And breaks away from the naive days of yore. An angel or a demon? Neither nor. Be yourself or die trying? Either or. Whatever else life may have in store He’ll carve his own way now to heaven’s shore. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
SEX IS SECONDARY
Sex is secondary Mission is primary It is not who shares your bed but who shares your path you should wed Or you’ll suffer the aftermath. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW
If you want to know if people love you, strip yourself of all lustre, rizz and fanfare, like the trees shed their leaves in autumn, so naturalness lays the human heart bare. If you want to know if people accept you, be yourself right from the very start, not from the middle and not at the end, your truth will expose the truth in their heart. If you want to be free of pressure in your life, tell people your truth as early as you can; once they know and accept you as you are, you can then live freely as your own human. If you want to know how you really are, remove your mask and exhibit your true self. From people’s reactions over time you will honestly know whether to change, or to continue to be, yourself. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
GOODNESS FIRST
When you whet the dry water wheel It churns your mind and turns your thoughts From stone to bread for the unfed Soul food for those well-bred With longing, because longing is the art Of belonging to the wellspring of intuition. Then you will love the Good More than you love the hood More even than you love your blood For Good alone is of God; Hood is human, blood is earthly - Without goodness they are empty. Goodness above all. Goodness first. Be good, for it will quench your thirst. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
EASY PREY
You call yourself, proudly, a man, Fiercely, loudly, a Black man! Prey. Easy prey. You are easy prey. Because you stand alone Because you mourn on your own Because you don’t show your brother Just how much you silently suffer Because you compete against each other In envy instead of bonding together Under the attacks of all those Who consider you their subhuman foes. Prey. Easy prey. You are easy prey. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
SUPERIORITY COMPLEX
Superiority complex Is inferiority complex Think about it Someone constantly trying to outdo you Means they feel constantly outdone by you Attempted demonstration of superiority Over you Is an indication of feelings of inferiority Towards you. When it happens on an individual level It is a curse But when it happens on a group level It is even worse It is a revelation of the collation of emptiness and of pettiness in the norm of human form. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
TARGETING THE VULNERABLE
They that came to remark the lines of destiny on our palms are still pulling the discords of smiles armed with sticky alms groping the vulnerable. They are legion. Their allegiance is with history and vision It is seasoned with wry reason when they call aid a mission targeting the vulnerable. The enmity is below the thought-line It is a volition seeded in culture Only one Dove visits in Love Every other dove is a vulture encircling the vulnerable. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
DUSKY
The wooded streets heavy laden with evening tears The dusk is wet with wanting well within her weathered years where everything longing meets maturity already wears with a battered beauty so haunting for the bruises it softly bears. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
NO HOLDING BACK
Do your poem
Like you do your woman
Like you do your man
Strong and Tender
Deep and Intense
Lovingly dismember
In the present tense
No holding back
Do your poem
Like you do them
That love you back.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 