There is evil in the air
It chokes your breath in unexpected places
A playground, full of hard adult eyes
Watching, and avoiding, each other
While playing children loudly try
To shout the intruders merrily out –
One by one each parent
Picks up its child and hurries home
Away from this place
And no-one can say really why
The world became like this
Or when. It’s the future, and we’re there.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
If you keep it free and open
It will find a friend
It will make a headway into
Yet another start
If you act like you were rhyming
Though you’re far from it
Those who dance along will wander
Why no-one else hears
The masterpiece within the picture,
Why nobody feels
The music in the melody
The magic in the air.
—————
che chidi chukwumerije
—————
The things we know in the morning
The moment we awaken
And from somewhere else are returning
But not yet quite retaken
By the world of thoughts that ever crowd around us
During the hours while we are fully day-conscious
Those things we know as sleep departs
Are as true as true can be
The Hour of Awakening to us imparts
The starkest clarity
It may be painful, may be pleasant
It may be quite surprising
But it is always true and doesn’t
Require verifying
Because if you did awake aright into this certainty
Events themselves will prove to you their authenticity
My thoughts are clear as sleep departs
And I see without guile
Displayed before me all those hearts
With whom I frown or smile.
————–
che chidi chukwumerije
————–
When the woman goes away from the home
The home goes away with the woman
And then the home goes away from the woman too
And returns to the home
Remember this before you go away, my dear
The home will return to you
Because you are you
The home
Anchor the boat to your heart
And then float away with me
And I will follow you home, dear sweet baby
I will follow you home
Remember this before you go away
I will follow you home
A poet is born somewhere tonight
I will follow you home.
————–
che chidi chukwumerije
————–
Every Tuesday
They gather here
A flock of wild geese
And play for nobody
Their smiles
Each time their smiles
Break my heart
Open Stage
Not a dime
What’s their crime?
Listen in
To the sound of happiness
It is full of sadness
Life is music
Friends are memory
Death is immortality.
————–
che chidi chukwumerije
————–
Internet battle
Between love and hate
Some call it war
Some call it debate
Some say it’s better to shoot words
Than bullets and bombs
Some say it is because of these words
That bullets and bombs come
Humankind has long yearned
To meet all humankind
Now we’re all on the same page
But still not of one mind
The war that is brewing
Wherever it takes place
You will be caught in the web
And it will be in your face.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I know I’ll never have it
It will never be my lot
I know I’ll always want it
It will always be my thought
I know I’ll forever have it
It will forever be all I’ve got
If I seek hard and seek right and seek long for it
It will elude me not, my seeking won’t come to nought
But if I die before I find it
Please, somebody, seek what I sought
And, when you find it, tell it
About me who sought for it
And found it not.
————–
che chidi chukwumerije
————–
A canoe is floating on a Lagos lagoon
A young lad in a face cap
Holds in his fist a fishing net
He looks briefly over at me
Looks away again
We met and parted in that look
The bus drove off
A brief moment of contact
I could almost swear
We understood each other completely
Without words
Though we think us dead,
We live.
Though we think we different
We more similar than we think.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
Water water everywhere
Why is the world full of water?
The earth like a primeval bowl
Has been filled with water from a pitcher
Tilted down over a heavenly shoulder
High above the material sphere
Where love flows everywhere
Where the spirits never thirst
Where the urge to help alone comes first –
Take me there, take me there, take me there.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
The punishment for being brave
Is having nothing to do
But be brave –
A tidal wave is rising in my soul.
The reward for being brave
Is having to do nothing
But be brave –
A tidal wave is crashing in my soul.
She warmed her cold tongue with
The flaming words of a passionate poet and
Lashed a gutter of decadent lava on
My soul.
Yet I told her still the truth
Again and again and again
And again and again, again
And again.
– che chidi chukwumerije
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 