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.
It is a story that always breaks and
Runs away from its observers
Like the baffling speed of light
No outsider ever understands what is happening
When it’s happening
Always it breaks the fabric of logic
Only the two lovers themselves, only they
Who follow the inner call of shared love
Understand the logic of magic.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Brief was our meet
Thick and soft, quick
The covers fell
And when it was over
There were no seeds left over
That fell
No strings
No roots
No fruits
Yet something holds me still there
They way you smiled and sadly whispered
So you’ve forgotten me now.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
I see you in this moment as a river, flowing out.
If you touch it, it makes your fingers wet. If you drink it, you get thirstier. If you watch it, you never come to find out its wherefrom or whereto. If you dive in, it takes you to a place from which you can’t return.
So you have to be strong, and outriver the river and outthirst your thirst, for the river flows in you.
And if these words mystify you, then you understand the effect you have on many people.
But when you dive in, dive deep into the river’s bed and clench its roots with your teeth and bite, so hard, that it bleeds. Then will you see the river run…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Silent things, unnamed
Unnameable, nameless
Lie between us like yesterday
Why does yesterday
Continue always to exist?
Why doesn’t it just go away forever?
Why must we understand yesterday
In order to understand today?
Why do we even bother to seek for
Understanding amongst our human selves?
Mystery
The very mystery itself, no answer
Round and round. I can’t bear it
When we fight, dear.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
From my collection of Poems: WRITING IS THE HAPPINESS OF SORROW.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 