ToKillaMockingBird
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: ToKillaMockingBird
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: ToKillaMockingBird
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
There is an ancient Yoruba poem about Àró, the alien.
Listen, the translation is below the Yoruba original.
Mo gbinlá mi sóko
Mo gbinkàn mi sóko
Ewúrẹ́ Àró fi jẹ;
Àgùtàn Àró fi jẹ
Èmi ò mọ ohun Àró ní mo ṣe.
I planted okra on my farmland
I’m off to take a walk.
I need to stretch my legs.
But though the corona seed is in season,
It will not find me.
I will not eat of its evil fruit.
O: THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
To pronounce this sound,
turn your lips into a circle.
Then push the air
through your lips,
gently,
then forcefully.
The sound comes out in a continuous flow
until you are out of breath:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
That is the sound
Photo: still in solitary confinement at home.
I’m not taking the vaccine.
Not yet.
Waiting to see what happens.
The lack of sunlight is depleting the melanin shield of my skin.
But I take Vitamin D supplements to compensate for a lack of access to sunlight.
Last night I was looking for my pet elephant and discovered it was hiding inside my beard.
That’s fake news.
Good fake news.
Adetola Wewe, is with me in Austin, Texas, posing with the first painting he completed and signed as an artist in residence at the University of African Art Residency, Texas, Austin.
Plenty to see and ponder,
so very much to read and wonder
in a half-penny newspaper.
First, you must see the three Magi
Looking to find the Messiah
At the throne of Herod?
The Three Mega-Pharmacies
Looking for the Corona Virus
didn’t start their search
in the manger scenes of Bethlehem.