separation

THE SPLIT

~ Che ~ 1 Comment

I’m quiet tonight
Never mind that it’s morning
I’m still dreaming

I remember a friend
We had high hopes for his future
Yet he chose the Easy

Now I’m all alone
On the road we once chose together
Watching it grow longer

This pain I keep inside
Greater than death, worse than loss
Treachery’s dungeons.

If I doubted reincarnation
This life has taught me a bitter lesson
For I must come again

The work is unfinished
The cards will be reshuffled
I will come again.

Then I hear, so soft
The sounds of morning dawning
The past is over now.

Those words, those strange words
That baffle the minds of politics
Of culture and science

You can call me Fool
You can call me mad, and yet
You too will come again.

– che chidi chukwumerije.

ONCE

~ Che ~ 7 Comments

Some things happen but
Once
In a lifetime…

It was here, it was there
It was where?
It is where?
It is gone…

It will never return.

-che chidi chukwumerije

DADDY DEAR

~ Che ~ 3 Comments

Ashes to ashes…

Dust to dust…

Spirit to spirit…

Have mercy, o Holy Ghost!

CDKC

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

Another anniversary of the day I beheld for the last time the noble countenance of my father. Then we closed the coffin and confered his cloak into the warm arms of Mother Earth. And set the spirt free for the Flight back Home. Always in my fondest Memories, Daddy dear… 22.5….

(Pic: my first day in Boarding School, Sep 1995 – King’s College. Lagos)

AGAIN

~ Che ~ 8 Comments

The punishment for being brave
Is having nothing to do
But be brave –
A tidal wave is rising in my soul.

The reward for being brave
Is having to do nothing
But be brave –
A tidal wave is crashing in my soul.

She warmed her cold tongue with
The flaming words of a passionate poet and
Lashed a gutter of decadent lava on
My soul.

Yet I told her still the truth
Again and again and again
And again and again, again
And again.

– che chidi chukwumerije

ABSENCE

~ Che ~ 15 Comments

Random quantum sugar
Sweet on my tongue

Fleetingly I savour your love
When it comes
Unexpectedly, like a suddenly remembered dream
You never knew you once dreamed
… when?

Random how it leaps
Madness joy how it keeps
My lonely heart, how it weeps
Tonight

Unhappy to have grown used to your
Absence.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LEAVING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

There was a girl
the fruit of her labour
Was the world
With a cry of pain and a shout of joy
She gave birth to the world
And primitive was the world

Harsh the lips that burned her nipples
Rough the tongue that broke her word
And we’re still here today
The earth is still not enough

Mother has become a stranger
The outcasts have grasped their destiny.

-Che Chidi Chukwumerije..

COLOURS

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

There are thoughts that define
And there are thoughts that defy…

There are hearts that deny
Hearts that desire
And hearts that never run dry –

And there are hearts
That run dry –
But I won’t cry.

There were thoughts that struck me
Thoughts that thunderstruck me
And left me dumbstruck –
These are the thoughts that stuck to me…

But if we say sometimes yes
Sometimes no
Sometimes…
Yes sometimes no sometimes yes.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

ALL OR NOTHING

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

The entire I gave
While smallness was all
She ever wanted.
But the rest of me thirsts too.

When frivolity was laughing
At its own shadow
I warned
That my heart was dripping…

When superficiality was doing the maths
Around its own tunnel vision
I insisted
My heart is dripping out…

When cunning was blind to the metaphor
Of its own despair
I fell silent
And listened to the sound of bleeding feet

Walking away.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EVENING

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

A dog is barking higher up
On the mountain
A worried sounding woof
Every few seconds
I wonder if someone is missing again

Down in the valley there is a train
That rushes past. It sounds like
A river every few minutes
Carrying someone’s dreams into
Another person’s thoughts

I’m trying not to pay attention to the
Conversation taking place beside me
The emotions are strong
Father and daughter gently tying
Up the memories of years past

Just like I waited six days
To finish this poem
So they also waited all these years
To finally say, at the departure, I love you
Please forgive me.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE BREAK-UP

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

The worst pain I ever felt
Was once when I embraced someone
And my embrace, she said,
Made her think of someone else.

Some things you should keep to yourself,
Yet it’s better when they’re spoken out
And it’s best of all when they hurt like hell.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.