PEACE, LOVE AND HAPPINESS

PEACE, LOVE AND HAPPINESS

Egbé lifted me up and away,

down the tunnels of clouds

and we alighted inside the ground

a million years and a thousand days

below the level of my house.

“Browse,” Àjà said, “read the entries.

All the letters of Time

are written in there already,

all in the past tense

so that tomorrow is yesterday.”

Me: I only want the entry

for the Year 2021, to view its fate.

Egbé: Easy; look under the Year 2021

and read out loud what the heading says.

Me: It says, LOVE, PEACE AND HAPPINESS:

it will be better than 2020.

***The title of my last painting in 2020 is, therefore, “Love, Peace and Happiness.”

It is from the Odu for 2021, from Ìká Ọ̀wọ́nrín.

Àjòjì ò gbọdọ̀ mẹsẹ̀ ilẹ̀;

Pábí, bájòjì mẹṣẹ̀ ilẹ̀

Ọsán a já;

Bájòjì mẹsẹ̀ ilẹ̀

Wọn a dàlúrú

The alien must not know the history of the land

Snap, when the alien learns the history of the land

The bowstring will break

when the alien learns the history of the land

they destroy the land.

***It is from that Ifa message that appeared for 2021, that I did the painting “Love, Peace and Happiness” as the Odu for 2021.