Poetry

SUBTLE TIES

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

He was my best friend
Yet when we parted
None gave news to the other
Of the path he charted

Where one went high
The other went low
And where one learned to lead
The other learned to follow.

She was a wild flower
But deep in her soul
She was a gentle morning
That made people whole

She fell in love with one
Then met the other
And fell for him too
Like he was her lover

Torn between a leader
And a follower
She learned with surprise that the higher
Is indistinguishable from the lower

The hunter is the hunted
The writer is the reader
The leader and the follower
Are both follower and leader.

He was my best friend
And though we walked separate ways
Destiny brought us together
Back to the same place.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

REGRET AND HOPE

~ Che ~ 9 Comments

I sat under a tree
Waiting for me
To come back to me

And while I was there
Two friends came to share
With me their hope and fear

A couple healthy and young
Who for long did long
To right a secret wrong

Early in their union
Confused they had given
A baby away for adoption.

And now though they try
And love and long and cry
The womb stays barren and dry

They’ve traced now doggedly
And found the family
Where their child grows happily

Today from afar
They saw them pass in a car
Saw how happy they are

Then sadly, quietly
They walked to the tree
Where I sat waiting for me.

And so did we three
Reflect thoughtfully
On history and destiny

And then we took heart
Upped and did depart
With courage and hope in our hearts.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ADULT AND LOST

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

A gentle feeling of lullaby
A soothing wave, a beast asleep
A little child is passing by
Why does it weep?

Tears as large as sun and moon
Bright as heart, dark as dream
Butterfly trapped in a cocoon
Life is vanishing cream

We spend our youth growing old
Learning sophistication, hardening up
The night grows empty, proud and cold
Saddening up.

But precious moments will come sometimes
A tear, a thought, a child’s pure heart
A Memory, a bell that suddenly chimes
And tears your heart apart

Those who find the child again
Do so because they looked again
Through clouds of lies and inner pain
And wiped its tears of pain
And became normal again.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

RIDE OUT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

The way is “how”
Even more than “what”
Even more than “where”

“What” without “how”
Is religion, is dogma
Will chain the spirit

“Where” instead of “how”
Will never lead to
The answer of “why”

For it is the doing
By oneself that yields alone
The personal Understanding of “How”

Just do to me that thing
That makes my spirit light
And, deep in me, I’ll understand
The way

Who needs teachers
When we’ve got horses?
Just teach me how to ride
Or I’ll learn it myself

Then we’ll ride out together
And see for ourselves
What the world has to offer to
Seekers and lovers.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WHAT IS NIGHT?

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

image
What is night?
Who gave it eyes
To see my soul?

Who gave it ears
To hear my inner voice?
Who gave it the sense
To smell my fears?

What is night
After midnight?
Who gave it arms
To hold me?

Who gave it words
To answer
The questions in my soul.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

Illustration “What Is Night?” by Swana van Schaardenburg.

REINCARNATION

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

How many lives did you need
To come alive in this one?
How many graves are marked
With those names
Which you will never know again
Never bear again?
Countless and faded.

Death, that great equalizer
Will remix your cards again
So before your life be lived in vain
Make something good of this birth this time.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE FEAR OF YOURSELF

~ Che

I know a girl
She loves to pray
And everytime we kiss
She runs away in shame

Because I don’t fit into her world
And she can’t look her leader
In the eye
When I’m on her mind.

Is your river flowing?
Should I… check again?
So she runs far away
And in the distance we can

Pretend
That she’s stronger than Shame –
She’s ashamed of herself
For not being herself.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ON BAR BEACH

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

On Bar Beach
On the shores of Lagos
Before the sea reclaimed the land
In those times
When all we had was soft white sand
On a moonlit night hard
Pressed I rode you on my Atlantic stallion
And the hooves that galloped across the sand
Cried of mermaids and whispers and sunless depths

And during the day I was at work
Renting my horse out to tourists
And middle-class upper-class noisemakers
And snobs and their children enjoying
A day at the sea, they pay to trot
Horseback upon the sea’s sand licking fingers –
And there you were, underneath
The thatch roof, selling fried buns, cold softdrinks
And ice cream and catching my eye

And we dreamed impatiently of the approaching night
Of long after midnight
And the lonely beach, the hoarse waves
The salty breeze, that soft pale sound
And the ride hard pressed upon
Our Atlantic steed, nostrils flaring into the wind
Stallion and mare
And the world is pounding the sand
And Lagos is fast asleep.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE RIVER

~ Che ~ 6 Comments

Time could be a river
If I were standing still
Or a dream, if I
Had taken a sleeping pill –

But awake I meander
Through dreams which I fulfil
So I must be the river
And time is standing still.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

NOBODY ELSE

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

A thought of mine
Well-saddled, gallops on
Its hasty steed
Like a need seeking another need
For the ache has become
A part of my memory of you
And my needing to be needed by you
Has become too, too heavy to share
With anybody else but you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.