palm lines

RENEWALS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

Love affairs
Whirlwind
Across the desert of loneliness…
Reassuring me that I live.

I’m grateful for every ripe watermelon,
Every mango, every grapefruit, every tangerine,
Every kiwi, pawpaw, and orange, every peach,
Ụdara, every ube, every mmịmị,

Every plum, every berry, Cherry, each date,
Every passionfruit that ever whet my appetite
Suckled on the fingers of my thirst
Stilled my restlessness.

Yet after the storm
Came always the quiet morning
Free of desire,
Full of my heart.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

LOVE AFFAIR

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When I tasted the spliff
Dragged it down to the level
Of my hungry black lips
It was a temptation it could not resist

Heavenwards it soared
With me, its quivering
Stub, on its mind
Where I met higher thoughts.

Write down
Your poems at the height
Of your madness
For after you return

You will not remember anymore
What thoughts those were
That came to you so naturally
When you were high in love.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

AS IF THEY WERE GIVING

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Dead trees
blowing in the breeze
as if they were living,
yet they are dying

Foreign lands
stretching out their hands
as if they were giving.
But they are lying…

They are taking, taking back
what they lack
More than what they give –
they need More to live.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

AND THERE WAS LIFE

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Believe unsanctimoniously
Burn robustly
Brave love. It is all we’ve got.

A tree gnome
Is mightier than his tree
For his tree is but his shadow.

When you serve love
You become a master of the universe.
And cease to be a shadow.

’Tis no cliché
God actually said “Let there be Love”
But we heard let there be light…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ODE TO POETRY

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I’ve been biting like a volcano
Poetry has been crying lava
I’ve been biting hard

Stop! Stop bleeding me! Stop breaking me!
I want your nipple
Your lip, your ruthless restless tongue

Your thigh
And above it, your most tender secret
I want to reveal it, stop starving me.

The eruption was a corruption
Of merciful silence.
You should never have woken me up.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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BLUE SECRET RIVERS

~ Che ~ 5 Comments

My blood is blue river today
Every thought of you beknights me
Makes me feel like royalty
For thou art my queen…

If I strode across mountains
They would prostrate before my will
Proud to be footstool
To the queen’s lover

Naughty me
What a delicious secret
I feel like King Aka the Thirst
For I secretly drink from the queen’s fountains

My blood is blue river today
When it runs into you
You sigh…
At night I am thine king.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije

MY FATHER

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When the rock was walking stoically
Through the mountain of time I was
On its back, and thought the ground was still
Beneath my running legs –

Restless was my heart
For I felt yours beating in it
And mighty were the loud congas
Drumming out my thoughts.

Yet there is one quiet thought
Too deep to be breached
Too quiet to be heard
By any but me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SAVED BY LONELINESS

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This morning
When I woke up
My loins were weeping
With longing for you –

Thick manly tears
Wasted on the banks of distance
The smeared silence of morning
Frustration, the fury of loneliness

Dark has been my desire
As bright as love.
Take me away
I need something stronger than hope.

That’s when my spirit spoke up.
I did not know there were so many daggers
Knifed into my back
Yet I am still alive.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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BACKTEETH OF REALITY

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

The world rotates,
A restless insomniac,
Lays on its back
Upon its bed of thorns

The bedsheets are sweating
Blood and brine
Midnight is crying for dawn.
A dream crashes to death everyday –

What laws really govern our lives?
No constitution
No legal textbook
Can capture the reasons and dynamics of living

So why don’t I stop wasting my time
With laws that terminate at death;
Seek instead for those that ever were
Ever will be.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.