Dear Chidi

This is as good a time as any to say these words.

To tell you of words that you nurtured all these years for me,

that never found utterance.

Words that lived in your heart for me, like a hermit,

secluded from the rest of humanity.

 

You had these words in your eyes in the way you looked at me.

I could discern your yearning for me.

And I longed to hear those words spoken into my ears.

But they never came.

Dear Chidi, what held you back?

 

You’d often told your friends how crazy about me you were.

Yet, when you saw me, you became tongue-tied.

How I longed to hear you say, ‘Oby, I love you.’

Oh, the many nights I waited, hoping to hear

a soft knock on my window, and see

my Romeo come to take me away.

 

What happened to those words you held on to?

Were they strangled by fear or shyness?

And if you could take back the hands of time,

would you speak those words to me?

 

Now the years have separated us, and each has found

another path to walk.

Yet, thoughts of what we could have being together

come and go.

And those words though unspoken,

ring out loud in my imagination.

Oby.