When the sadness
Coloured the smile
Of the musician’s sunshine
I saw that his joy
Had just got deeper
And the unshed tears
Longing in his eyes
Were less bitter
Than they were bittersweet
To my ears
Music to my heart
Water to my soul – his sorrow
Became the joy of my spirit flame.
That was when I saw him smile
That broke my heart.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
How can that be?
All this intimacy
And still not happy
All these people
All these hearts
And still so lonely
All these words
All these conversations
And your life still has no meaning
When you’re not with the one you really need
And all that sex
Is just the expression
Of unhappiness.
– 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
————–
The city is overcast with the blue mist of dawn
Swiftly fading
The street lamps of night
Hurriedly dwindling
Yesterday’s man
Softly gazing
A tiger’s cub at the setting moon.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
I’m feeling down today
The perfect mood
For poetry
He’s played the music
So long
He’s lost in the music now
That musician on stage
Is an echo of the poetry
Eating me inside.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
There is a graveyard thence
With benches placed all over
Where people come a-steady
To ponder life and death
There is a certain bench
Apart from every other
Where I sit when poetry
Takes clean away my breath.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I fear
The daily commute
To the valley of the mute
The echoless cry of my silent flute
Digs a hole in my soul
Wringe me mad
I fear
Mockery sticks his head around the door
You no waving yo flag no mo?
Blackhawk down
My dreams, stranded shipwrecks
Scuttle each hurriedly into safety
Hiding they fearfully await the scorching passage
Of the locals’ raging raid –
Some will be caught, shot, mocked
Some will sacrifice themselves
That the finer ones may escape the drape
For tomorrow’s blossoming
Quiet now
Wait for the Sign.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
He’s lying in the midst of his toys
And what language do they speak
To one another? They seem to understand
Each other. It’s his smile
That makes me strong.
I’m glad he can’t interpret my frown
When I look out of the window
Into the world, into the times –
Yes I’m glad for him
Let him store happiness in his heart today.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije..
Pick with care
The enemies you bear
When the unexpected is near
They shall be there
To crown you.
When true friends
Step off the boat
Curious, how the river
Turns your coat
Around you.
Clear your throat
Vomit when no-one is looking
Regurgitated oaths
Pressure-cooking
Sunbrowns you.
If diplomacy
Be their tactless god
How shall he decipher
Your non-committal nod,
Proud you?
But brave soldier
It is the art of war
To live on in pages
Of folklore
Unbound to you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Once so deep, now so shallow
Once never walking the path I now follow
My farm lies fallow
Another dimension
Same old sung in a new key
Sharps, naturals, empty flats
We’ve moved house, you, I
I like it that there is no barrier
In between
My view into your eyes, your view into my heart –
It gives me hope
Furnishes me with counterproof more powerful
Than the deliberations of thoughts
Did you renounce anything for this love, this hour, this
Life? – The words grow stronger
The more I write; the light grows brighter
Within the night, beneath the descending Halo.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 