SURVIVAL

What don’t I know
About you is what
I silently ask myself
Each time you ask me
What I’m thinking
As I think about you

How many wars
Have you fought, won and lost?
How many lives have
You taken, how many given?
How much hunger did you endure
To nourish so much anger?

How many loves have pierced you?
How many wounds are
Dripping a trail back to
How many acts of survival?
All I see is the smile in your eyes
And the hope in your heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SPACE

Distance
Brought me closer to you than
Romance
Ever did or ever could

Distance
Is more intimate than nearness
Substance
Needs space to come together

Distance
Is at the heart of our closeness
Long live the resistance
That makes the current of love flow.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

FAMILIAR INTIMACY

Why do people grow lonely
In a union warm and homely?
I have heard of walls that rise
So slowly it comes as a surprise
To find out that familiarity kills
The very intimacy that it fulfils.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.