There are many things
That seem to be the same
But are not
Just like dawn and dusk
Those two strangers
Who have a way of appearing similar
And yet have never met
Or seen
Nor ever will
Nor ever be the same.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Poetry
AFTER YOU’RE GONE
Footprints on sand
What is the proof that you ever lived?
What is record of self?
What is confirmation of identity?
Passport? No. Insufficient.
Fingerprints? No. Mute.
You. Spirit. Spirit is evidence.
Speak your mind before you die.
Character. Be yourself.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
BEING HUMAN IN A SERIOUS AND HAPPY WAY
Walk with me
Down quiet paths in the woods
Hold my hand
Tell me about yourself…
I’ll listen and give answers where I can
I’ll listen with my heart, the heart of an honest man…
I don’t want to take advantage of you
Everything that was good in you
When you were a child
I want it to come to the fore again
When you walk by my side…
And if somewhere along the way
We lie down in some secret grove
Then it’s just me and you, baby
Being human in a serious and happy way…
I want the child we have together
To be a reflection of the child in you and me
I want our old age, our life’s evening
To be again like childhood, in the beginning…
Look into my eyes as I look into yours
Let’s hide nothing from each other, let’s have nothing to hide…
Let our quiet walk in the woods
Last longer than our life on earth…
And if somewhere along the way
We are laid down in some secret grove
Then it’s just me and you, baby
Going up our path again together
Being human in a serious and happy way.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
RETURN TO RECOGNITION
Years pass
And all you do
Is return to the same
Recognition –
All the searching and adventuring
And experiencing and reflecting
Have only taken you
In a circle back to the Recognition
You acquired
The first time you were good…
There’s really only one way of doing it aright
Morally…
And you’ll have to come back to it
One day.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
DEATH OF A FLOWER
You are afraid of a flower
She smiled sadly at me
My bosom blossoms for you
My thorns, they prick, I know
But love hurts the lover
And love hurts the loved
And I’m dying, I’m dying for you
Lie down in my grave with me
Let’s be reborn together.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS RESISTANCE
No master gon’ willingly let a slave go
No oppressor gon’ willingly let the oppressed rise to his level
If you wan’ freedom, you gon’ take a blow!
The loss of property and means
The loss of power
The loss of status
Yea, the loss of status
Hurts like hell.
When you rise, it means that
Someone else is no longer higher
Than you and has to stomach that –
Remember that.
You gon’ pay a heavy price
Because everyone around you
Knows the value
Of self—elevation, knowledge and freedom
They will make you pay for it
If you’re really worth it.
The price of your freedom is their resistance.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
EMPTY
It’s one of those wordless nights
When your lover isn’t talking to you
Or you’re not listening – one of the two
Who is thine love? She may be Nature
She may be Poetry, may be a thought hard to grasp
Or a human heart you suddenly can no longer decipher
She may be your path to destiny.
It’s one of those nights when I’m staring
At the TV and not seeing it, staring
At my phone and chatting with no-one, staring
At my saxophone and not playing it, staring
At empty paper and not writing anything.
Yet I’m full.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WEALTH OF POVERTY
They shrink away instinctively
Disgustedly
From the poor
As though poverty were a disease
But even faster they
Avert their thought-sprinkled eyes
Nobody wants to see Shame
The shame mirrored within
Who is ashamed of whom?
Of what?
The rich is ashamed for being rich
The poor is ashamed for being poor
They both are ashamed of being
In the company of each other
One hopes the tides will turn
One fears the tides will turn.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
FISHERMAN
Daily my heart weeps
My soul is drenched in a river
Flowing with thoughts of you
Of late I have become
A fisherman
Richly rewarded for my toil
Bravely diving into the lake of love
Daily my heart weeps
With joy.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
ALL OR NOTHING
The entire I gave
While smallness was all
She ever wanted.
But the rest of me thirsts too.
When frivolity was laughing
At its own shadow
I warned
That my heart was dripping…
When superficiality was doing the maths
Around its own tunnel vision
I insisted
My heart is dripping out…
When cunning was blind to the metaphor
Of its own despair
I fell silent
And listened to the sound of bleeding feet
Walking away.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 