lies

MASKS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

I saw suddenly one day that there on our face is a mask. Strange, but it moved. It spoke. It smiled. It frowned. It scolded. And it watched the world obliquely.
And the last thing it will tell you is that it is a mask.
And only love can break into this mask and comprehend its bearer. And only love can break into this mask and be comprehended by its wearer.
And then to my horror I saw that every continent has its masks. Every race, every group and every face. But whoever is unmasked by love is masked by love.
And love can speak, can comprehend every tongue. And on the day we have all learned to speak the language of true love – respectful, selfless love – we shall have no more the need to mask our hearts anymore.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

UNDERBRUSH

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Carry me
Marry me
Madness pain
Sadness moon
Tidal silence be violent
On me

I have seen it all
Love a lie
Hatred a voiceless bond
Treachery a given
Weakness our one true calling
I have seen enough.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SLIPPERY

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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.

INTERSECULAR

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Like a cow
Eschewing its thoughts
The worship bells
Choked my throat
Penned me to my pagy leaf

Sunday mournings
Have my sins been so many?
Stop confessing guiltily
What you profess so
Guiltlessly.

Monday is the new Sunday.
If you want to meet God,
Look for Him on Monday –
On Sunday, Saturday and Friday He is far far away,
Tired of our hypocrisy.

-Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WRITERS AND LOVERS

~ Che ~ 32 Comments

I’ve never dated a writer
I wonder what it’s like
To both be awake, thinking
And writing in the night.
Will we share each other’s thoughts
Or keep our thoughts to ourselves?
Will we rejoice together
Or envy each other’s success?

Who will draw from whom
When both are needy?
Who will be the calming pole
When the writer gets crazy?
Who will write the greater poem
Into the book of life?
Greater than words on paper
And conquer inner strife.

Read my palm, it’s full of lines
Do not read between the lines
Between the lines are just packs of lies
Cleverly waiting to bait a writer’s eyes.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

DIRT

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My hands are clean when
I rub them in the dirt
Washed in the tears of the homeless
Warmed by the laughter of the dignity
Of the downtrodden

Did they lose it all
Just to gain this clarity in their eyes?
Don’t lie to a person
Who has seen through all of society’s lies
They can unmask every government

They can unmask every family
They can unmask every act of friendliness
They know the difference between kindness
And charity. They can unmask you
And they can unmask me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

MASKING PRIDE

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What’s behind the veil?
Nothing. The veil is your face
I don’t need a mask
My face masks my thoughts

The reason why I don’t hide things
Is because the best hiding places
Are out there in the open
That’s why you don’t see it

You don’t believe the things I tell you
Because I tell them to you
But if I were to hold them back
You would start to look for them in my Silence

And you would look and look
Until you became a prisoner of my Silence
So why don’t you appreciate it
When I just tell you in plain simple words

That I love you?
I killed you when I took off your mask
Now you want to kill me, by putting
A new different one back on.

But I already saw the girl within
Hidden deeper than shame and sin
Struggling with the pain within
And Pride is her middle name.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

GHETTO BROTHER

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In the ghetto
I get to see
The living me
Watching me with eyes
Wiser than the eyes watching me
Living my thousand lives
While I search in my mind for lies
With which to neutralise
The truth reflected back at me
By the other me.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

INTELLECT

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

Much praised –
Who raised
You up?

And what do you really see?
What do you know?

Where Intuition sees
A thousand lies
Intellect has the tools
To fashion them into one
Uncomfortable hard truth.

Verily, some hearts
Have no mouths
And some mouths
Have no heart.

– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.

AFRAID 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?
Breathing hard 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

Because she’s afraid of herself.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije