Like a soulful cry
On its own
Gradually spreading itself out
Through the vastness
Of the heavenly skies
So is the loneliness in my heart
When the moon is gone…
The hour of the full moon is gone
The setting suns
Leave moonless skies behind
Deep into the night
Once again…
Yet we bear it
Because
After the moon is gone
A different charm rules the night…
Until the moon
Another Moon
Another one
Comes again –
But I will never love this way again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
How many times do
You think you
Have lived?
Blind mole
I am tired of your arguments
Stray in your hole
Keep on laughing
At me –
The soft brown earth is not as thick
As my dense black skin –
I cannot hear you.
I cannot hear you in there
Yet I know you are out there.
Your recurring epitaph
Awaits again:
The grind
Did wring you, it ground you
Pension was indeed
Your resting place.
Your nesting place.
How many times do
You think you
Have died?
Just once more.
Just once more.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
You seek them at the beginnings
And find them not
You seek them through the middles
And find them not
You seek them at the endings
And find them not
Because where you were sure you would meet the End
You met only a new Beginning
And when you have started afresh
You understand that there are no endings
Because no stranger ever affects one so strangely
Or passes one by so quietly
As the end.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Upon the fields and meadows
Saw I two black sheep
Alone, together
Feeding, side by side
And then evening was near
The shepherd
Slowly shaved the wool
Off one of them
And led it away
And now when I look into the fields
And meadows
Of my youth
All I see is one black sheep
Grazing alone…
Brother
I still miss you –
Except that the fields and meadows
Have become bare
And the second black sheep is gone too…
And the wind is cool
Upon the mountain-top…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Love affairs
Whirlwind
Across the desert of loneliness…
Reassuring me that I live.
I’m grateful for every ripe watermelon,
Every mango, every grapefruit, every tangerine,
Every kiwi, pawpaw, and orange, every peach,
Ụdara, every ube, every mmịmị,
Every plum, every berry, Cherry, each date,
Every passionfruit that ever whet my appetite
Suckled on the fingers of my thirst
Stilled my restlessness.
Yet after the storm
Came always the quiet morning
Free of desire,
Full of my heart.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
When I tasted the spliff
Dragged it down to the level
Of my hungry black lips
It was a temptation it could not resist
Heavenwards it soared
With me, its quivering
Stub, on its mind
Where I met higher thoughts.
Write down
Your poems at the height
Of your madness
For after you return
You will not remember anymore
What thoughts those were
That came to you so naturally
When you were high in love.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
A girl arose from bed one morning
And heard the alien call
Of a bird
From an alien country
She looked out of her window
Saw the bird
Hovering in the air, calling…
The girl became confused
For she could strangely understand the bird’s song
And yet knew not its meaning:
The first person to trust me
Is mine…
Sang the bird.
And then the girl’s brother shed his night-gown
And flew out to meet the calling bird – the bird
From an alien country…
And the girl watched them fly away
Two identical birds
To their alien country
The first one to trust me
Is mine.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I have seen
That Evil
Is deep
It has silenced me
For where it nests
Is the noiseless depth
Pay no attention to my words
They are a distraction
If you want to hear my message
Listen to my silence
My words will show you the way into my silence
Where I talk of treachery no words can describe.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Peoples of different origins
Colonised my heart
And raised therein an edifice
Of loneliness
And treasured dreams…
Look now at the liquid mountains
Luminous and eternal
Which have become my spirit’s
Backbone
Liquid mountains of moving light…
When I say I love you
I mean it…
When I say I love you
I mean it…
When I say I love you
I mean it…
Inside each liquid mountain
Within each luminous elevation
Is a heart
Of gold, of fire, of love…
So love me forever, my dear.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
When a flower blossoms
We know
That it has been touched by
The ray
When a woman blossoms
We know
That she has been touched by
The ray
The beautiful ray.
When a writer is touched by
The ray
The whole world blossoms.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 