They will build a city
And congest it with laws and dreams
Then they will reduce themselves to the size of the city
And fish their thoughts out of its streams.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
streams
REGRET IS SWEETEST AT NIGHT
See there, a stream
It flows only at night
How can this be?
Who melted my frozen pride?
Who taught me how to cry
When the night is singing?
The book of my life
The pages start revealing
Every petal of blossoming pain
The seed was mine, I broke the ground
And sealed it over with a pound of pride
Not a drop of remorse
Or so I thought.
Yet see, there, a stream
It flows at night in my loneliness
Pride thaws and falls like rains of regret.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
RUNNING WATERS
The story you told in the west
Is not identical
With the laughter you laughed in the north
Nor with the song you sang in the south
Nor with the thoughts you expressed in the east…
The language you spoke on the mountain
Is very different
From the tongue you mouthed in the valley
And from the violins you bowed through the woods
And the ballad you composed upon the blue-green meadows…
The roar you let out as you charged past us
Has a different meaning
From the groan the desert drew out of you;
And the whisper which you sighed in this grateful heart
Is not the same cry with which you flow into the sea.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 