CLOSED CYCLES

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

You start. I’m scared, my friend,
Of finding the floor with my feet first
They might lead me astray

Doubleback. The start is the end
Why quench your longing with a thirst
That might never go away?

It’s hard to move
When you move together
One has to receive, and one has to give
Together in opposite directions

Well I can’t prove
If we do or don’t belong together
But cycles close, something had to give
And unmasked all our pretensions.

Missed opportunities
Mixed opportunities.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MEHR

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Tragweite deiner Entscheidung, deiner Sehnsucht
Dieses Sehnen, geht es um Sehn oder um Suchn?

Wie weit tragen sie die Flügel eines Schmetterlings?
Unvergleichbar den Schwingen des Adlers
Dennoch be-trügen sie mich weiter

Alles Starke, was ich an mir trug
Jegliche Weitsicht, und stolze Männlichkeit
Zart spielerisch machte sie alles zu Nichte

Dann trug sie mich weiter, und ich sah, ohne Worte
Was sie mir die ganze Zeit nicht sagen konnte
Nicht mal mit ihren zartesten Zeilen

Unberührt ist auch berührt.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE INNER ROSE

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Beware of those
Who like the wind does
To the petals of the rose

Like the mind blows
The poetry out of the prose
– Those who sense

The source of your strength
And work only to dent
And take away your self-confidence.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE NOISY CHILD

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

I walk the streets, the broken streets. I encounter people, broken people. I see the materialisation of broken dreams – and suddenly I understand a-deeper, that a child was silenced at dawn. Ssshh! Keepquiet! Shutup! Don’ttalk! Can’t you see that adults are talking! Stopthat! Standthere! Standstill! Obey before you complain! You’re just a child! You’re still a child! DO as you’re told! You will understand only when you’ve grown… – But by the time they grow, poor children, they’ve forgotten whatever it was they once wanted to say or what once they wanted to know… – – – I walk the streets, the broken streets. I encounter adults, broken adults… noisy… empty… silent… silenced. I see the forgotten memory of the broken dreams blowing in the evening wind under a sad sun. And I understand once again, that once upon a crucial early time, a child was told to be still… stillborn.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DIGNITY

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He threw all the standard colourful
Discriminatory bigot remarks and innuendo
At me, then stepped back with a smirk
And waited to see it shame and hurt me

I knew this one had run out of arguments
And was fishing for the killer-blow
So I let it pass by without contact or impact
And leaned back and watched it confuse and hurt him

Some lines of attack grow old and stale
But some people just don’t get it
I speak back when speaking back will hurt you
And I ignore it when ignoring it will hurt you

Once upon a time, a man was humiliated
With fear and the theft of his dignity
But before he died, he whispered to me – You
Are my victory. Let my history be a lesson to you

Never go down without a fight. Never beg
For mercy when the killer points his gun
If they’re fair to you, be fair to them
But if they hurt you unprovoked – always always always

Somewhere
Someday
Somehow
Hurt them back.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

AUFGESCHLOSSENHEIT

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Stell dir vor
Alle Augen sind verschlossen
Heute Nacht –
Wer soll die Dunkelheit beobachten?

Wäre das Herz eine Kerze
Kerzen überall in der Nacht
Gäbe es die Welt weiterhin zu dritt
Oder sähe ich nur ein einheitliches
Bild?

Aufgeschlossene Augen
Im Ghetto
Aufgeschlossene Augen
In der Wüste
Aufgeschlossene Augen
Auf dem Land
Aufgeschlossene Augen
Überall.

 – Che Chidi Chukwumerije

VORBEI FAHREN

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Handschrift ihrer Gedanken
Unsichtbare Tinte
Berührungsängste
Worte sind zu schwer
Zu leicht ist ihre Hoffnung
Reden engt ein
Schweigen deckt auf
Unvolles Treffen
Knapp daneben
Vorbei fahren ist die sicherste Begegnung

Du tanzt dem Lied
Und überhörst den Sänger
Jetzt hast du meine Worte gefunden
Nun hast du mich verloren.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FAINTHEARTEDNESS

~ Che ~ 12 Comments

There is a time, a moment
To say yes –
You feel it, you know it, you just
Have to say it

Yet you drown it in conversation
Puncture it with rhetoric
Hang a cloud of Why over it
Betray it with a question mark, and then fall silent

There is a time, a moment to
Say yes – only the brave
Will grasp it. The fainthearted
Will run away into a familiar point of view

Every meeting is a thing of beauty
Everything that confuses you and
Throws you off-balance is a gift from life
Knocking on the door of a greater you.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

KOHLENTANZ

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Diese Kinder, die Sterben
Gründe dafür gäbe es tausendfach
Doch Gründe genug kennt mein Herz
Tausendfach trifft der Schmerz ein
Ohnmächtige Tränen…

Noch einen Grund gibt es auch
Grund, Hilfe zu schaffen
So wissend war die Menschheit noch nie
Doch so blind auch

Dein Schmerz, er sucht mich heim
Warum? –
Dein Schmerz, er sucht sich ein Heim
Klopft an die Tür meines Herzens,
dieses heute unsagbares Wort!

Je länger ich tatenlos bleibe
Desto heißer brennt die Kohle
Während anderswo auf diesem Planeten
Kinderherzen erfrieren.

 – Che Chidi Chukwumerije

THE IDEA, NOT THE PERSON

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Those who subscribe to an idea
Usually flock around one
Who embodies that idea

The leader is the one whose activity
Awakens or keeps alive in the others
The spirit of the goal, and the belief

That the goal will be attained.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.