Take in little sips
My waterfall
My aching brown lips
Gently call
Did softly my love
Water your flower?
Then a Little is enough
… A gentle shower
So, now, slow it down
Time stands still
And the heights we crown
Will be gentler still
Come, cup your Hands –
The night rain
Fills and understands
Our gentlest pain
And when I flow away
Say to our offsprings
In your wild blood play
Love’s gentle wings.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Lange nach dem ich meine Gitarre
Gespielt und wieder beiseite gelegt
Hatte, antwortete die Nacht, sanft, sachte
Und plötzlich. Geräusche. Die Nacht ist erregt
Dachte ich, als ich durchs Fenster dem Regen lauschte
Und dann roch ich sie, ihre milde Feuchte
Und roch sie noch lange nach dem der kurze Regen
Langsam, lautlos verschwunden war.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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.
Ich weine wie Mangos
Süße reife feste Tränenklumpen
Fett mit feuchtem Fleisch, mit hartem Kern
Mein klebriger Schrei beschmiert
Dich mit goldener Scham wenn ich
Über dich herfalle.
Mich genießen
Ohne dich zu beschmutzen
Geht nicht – empfangen befleckt.
Drum halte fern Sensibles, Wertvolles
Und bring zu mir nur befreites Dich
Und saubere nackte dürstende Hände.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
I love you when you speak
The language of peoples gone;
Your mind, if you don’t mind, is antique;
Your honey tongue is on the run,
Breathlessly chasing a people’s dream
Gently up the stream.
You were my lover in hot dark nights
And you just couldn’t keep still;
Your tongue was restless as those kites
That circle and circle the forbidden hill,
And you taught me the language that lovers speak
When the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak.
Coo like a dove, my sweet love,
The sounds that you make are never enough.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
You are not yonder desert
That cried a wailing note
In the history books of strangers
Oh no! Nor a lost ocean
Shedding tears on every shore
Its aching fingers can reach, oh no!
I say what you hear, yes
Believe what you hear me say to you
You are not lost in translation
Did your lips taste the flesh of my teeth
Or your tongue flower with grace?
I see your ears smiling
Now, lie still and let the seeds of prophecy
Germinate and take root, roots
That grip your earth, yearning with fruit
I did it twice for a reason
The first time to make you feel at home
The second time to set you free again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Four example
Camel Lion
Your dreamy dark eyes
Bottomless pools of wanting
Crow’s bones
Lord of the thighs
Unhappy keys, open me
A bright queer inner light-flash
Sometimes camel, sometimes lion and me
Waterbottle
Just fooling around
Sex and Sax
Keep it tight, yeah that’s just alright
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Kurz
Hinter der Tür
Verschwand die Wand – plötzlich, ohne Warnung –
Ich war frei, du auch
Ohne Gespür für Schuld und Moral
… dann rollten die Tore der Vergesslichkeit zurück.
Und ich war wieder
Der Mann deiner besten Freundin
Und du die Frau
Meines Kumpels.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
She told me the tongue
Is the instrument of the heart
Learn to use it well, for song
And touch, to part and to impart
I tell you this, she said
Because you make my tongue restless
Then I knew what she wanted
A drink of tenderness
Blue was that night
And underneath the mango tree
Me warm me hands in her fireside
She sang of honey
Yet, though she’s melting me, watching me
Still my admiration is voiceless, deadpan
Words of flattery would be
A waste of woman.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
I like to hear you…
Don’t keep it in – let it out
If it’s too strong for a whisper
Baby, shout.
Breathe in my Need
Breathe out your every doubt
The sun sets, the Moan rises
Douses my drought.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 