We came we went And the time spent Was like a drop of memory In a few people’s story Who themselves are gone too And, if not yet gone, are going too. If you have a heart Now is when to start Keeping record in there Of what you’re doing here On this planet distant and blue - Your memories are for you. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
memories
YESTERDAY’S FLOWERS
My memories, are they mine?
Whose Definitions do definitions define?
How many sides has a line?
Grape juice is drunk, but not on wine.
My memories, are they mine?
They are my memories of you,
So what are they? If I asked you
Then I‘d be asking the you of today –
I’d much rather ask the you of yesterday,
The you in my memories of you.
But is that, or was that ever, the real you
Or is it just my memory of you?
My memories of you, are they yours?
Or are they mine? Or are they ours?
Yesterday’s flowers bloom on in me and you.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
MEMORIES
The beach was a friend
Whose waves like fingers
Wrapped themselves around
The hooves of the horses on
Which Kwame and I flew across wet sand
And Daddy took lost pictures
In the background, barefooted
While Mummy and Azuka
Laughed at us cheerfully.
Bar Beach on a Saturday
Long gone away.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 