SELFIES

I learnt a thing about selfies today

Not the ones with flashes and clicks

But the ones from “buddies” and cliques

“I feel it should be this way”

“I” being the most important thing they say.

Then they try to convince you

it’s nothing personal and force-feed you their views,

They expect to find themselves in you,

your works and your death.

What they are really trying to say

is – “if it doesn’t reflect us,

then it’s not good enough”

Well, enough!

For if they don’t bother asking

what inspired the art,

then they are not critiques but critics.

What matters is that you photocopy

the image imprinted on your heart

from Zion.

For you are not your own.

You are a copy of the original.

What you see when you look at you

is His selfie… So please Him

and forget others.


Image credit: incrediblediary.com

BUREAU OF LIFE (PART I)

Mosun’s knee locked as she stamped the brakes in futile desperation. Her pulse was so loud her eardrums were vibrating like the thumps of an orchestra at crescendo. Her Toyota Prius was no match, bodily, for the monstrosities that flanked her to the left and right. In her anxiety to get to work early, she had thrown her calm nature out her windows and attempted an imprudent overtaking venture.

The Oando and Total fuel trucks had driven side by side for the last five minutes and Mosun knew that another minute spent on this Oshodi-Apapa expressway meant another query sheet closer to her sack-letter. So she attempted a “Jaiye-Bond” stunt that she ordinarily wouldn’t; a possible drive-through in the little space between the two trucks.

Unknown to her, just ten meters ahead, there were ditches and several pot-holes on the service-lane. So, at the same time she drove in to split the competing trucks, the Oando truck to her right swerved left to avoid the ditches. Despite Mosun’s honks, the space between the trucks narrowed and the proverbial life flashed before Mosun’s eyes. She pumped the brakes but they didn’t connect.

Her brakes-pumps were dead, her heart was alive, her accelerator was on fire, and her skin was freezing. This was imminent and certain death. Then her spirit poured a Psalm out her lips, “Lord you have given your angels charge over me.”

***

Sanctiel flew through the flaming glass of the 1000-storey all-white and glass building, leaving Mackel, the doorman, aghast with mild frustration. Sanctiel’s exuberance was cause for concern at the Bureau. Since his employment, though adept and swift to execute missions, he had come into infractions with everyone in the bureau – and that’s like the population of an earth nation. Mackel, however, smiled after the spurt of emotion passed, he had seen Sanctiel’s type come and leave the Bureau for the last 200 Zion years. They either learnt to behave or got transferred to another Bureau.

The Bureau of Life was a special force that executed special missions in planet earth. Their focus was to administer life to all who believed in Jay. Theirs wasn’t to fight wars or battle the fallen over territories or hearts. Theirs mission was simple – administer life as Elion’s Spirit instructed.

Elion’s Spirit sent coded messages about Christians in need via inter-galactic waves; these messages would be received by Yadah’s Department on the 1000^th floor, who will then forward it to Shamah’s Department on the 700^th floor, where an angel was assigned to execute the instruction transmitted by Elion’s spirit. Whatever supplies the angel needed was picked from Rapha’s Department. All of these happened within one-one-millionth of an earth’s second.

Immediately Sanctiel entered the lobby resplendent with the glory of a thousand angels going about their different missions, his wrist buzzed and Amaziel, his unit boss, popped up in a holograph.

“Mosun Akinola, 32-year-old, 8,231,811,127 strands of hair, married with two-kids,” Amaziel rattled-off like some light-speed data software. “She works at Dangote Sugar, and is currently on Oshodi-Apapa expressway, Section 83, Quadrant 4, Code 234, Time-zone GMT+1.”

“What’s my mission?” Sanctiel hovered, his wings fluttering in excitement. He just got back from Alaska, where he pulled a 10-year-old boy out of a frozen lake. He had dreamt of serving in the bureau since he was a kid and his greatest joy was when he was drafted in after his life-long training.

“She’s stuck in between two fuel trucks just before Barlett bus stop,” Amaziel didn’t finish before Sanctiel sped out of the lobby again without waiting for Mackel to sign him out. The holograph swept back into the pod as Sanctiel sped off leaving a trail of glory behind him.

***

Mosun shut her eyes and gave up despite the words that left her lips. She knew deep down that she shouldn’t have tried going in between the truck.

Then she heard some loud horns behind her. She opened her eyes and realized that the horns were coming from behind her. She checked her rear-view mirror and her heart stopped. The two trucks were about twenty meters behind her.

How her car got to that point from the of valley death, she had could not fathom. The only thing that came to her mind was John 10:10 “…the thief comes to kill, to steal and to destroy, but I have come that you might have LIFE and have it abundantly.”

Image credit: revivalcentres.org

P.O.Box (PART IV)

...Continued

Elion beheld his son and Jay beheld his father. Elion knew for the thirty-three earth years that Jay would be away, he would not have a heavenly equal to commune with. Emotions rippled through his being with solar intensity and Jay responded with reverential prostration.

"As long as your word remains, I live to fulfil them," Jay muttered. "Their sacrifices and burnt offerings will not reconcile them to you; permit me to inhabit the body that you have prepared for me. So life can be found in death. So grace and truth may embody mortality."

The bubbling emotions in the blaze of glory exploded as Elion let out a terrifying, life-splitting wail; an anticipation of the agony that awaited his right-hand.

"This day I reaffirm my love for you, this day I renew my vow to make Luciff your footstool." Elion spoke in ten thousand thunders. The throne of light blazed stronger than ever before until light flakes rained down the streets of Zion.

A streak of flames tore away from the throne towards Zion's main threshold. The light that shows the way of truth to life was coming to dead humanity.

***

Joe was lost in the confused maze his mind had become. He had no known relatives resident in Little Town. There was no one he could turn to for help. What qualified him to bear this burden for humanity? How come Elion had chosen him to first endure the ridicule of not sleeping with his wife for over nine months and then bear the burden of raising the saviour of the world?

Was he even sure that Elion had sent that being that showed himself as an angel of Light? If Elion had designed things to go this way, then Elion must be a really terrible planner. He had assumed that raising the saviour of the world on earth would mean open doors everywhere he turned. But ever since he had been warned not to end his engagement with Mari and he obeyed, things had moved from cherries to dung.

His carpentry business had descended from receiving cheques to paying for damages and refunds for non-delivery. His family members no longer visited because he was broke. His church members ostracized him because they felt he had slept with his wife before they got married - which was prohibited by his church's "doctrine". The only thing that kept him going was that visitation he had from the "angel".

With the train of current events, he wondered if that dude was really an angel. Maybe he had been hallucinating. An ocean of screams erupted in his head and he landed in reality - in the car with Mari screaming in the back seat.

"He's here, he's here--" she kept panting breathlessly. He slowed down to gently rub her bloated tummy.

"He can't be." Joe replied testily. "Can't he see there's no hospital in sight?" He looked out of the windshield to the skies. "Can't you see? I know you are not blind but can't you see? Do something!"He screamed. 

By the time he dropped his gaze, the Peugeot ran into a mailbox post. The airbag slammed his chest and face. It took divine restraints for Joe not to spit expletives. His saving grace was just that he had slowed to about 40km/h.

He looked up and saw an open gate ahead. While Mari panted in the backseat, Joe alighted to inspect the damage on his neighbour's car. The screeching alarm confirmed damage. Then he saw that the gate had an untarred driveway that led to a small cottage. A lone florescent bulb shone outside. No light came from inside. No sign of life inside. "Here!!!!" Mari screamed again and a confused Joe decided to run inside and see if he could get a woman to help.

"Don't you dare leave me here!" Mari yelled at Joe's retreating figure. He ran back and helped her down. He carried her bulging weight and scurried down the driveway. Where the adrenaline came from he knew not, but in seconds he was outside the cottage.

"Please we need help!" He yelled. "Anyone home?" He kicked the door and it swung open. He stepped into the darkness and perceived what smelt like an amalgam of urine, hay, and livestock dung. A sheep bleated and he knew he was in the wrong maternity ward... or so he thought.

He turned to go and Mari's dangling feet kicked the switch by the door as she struggled with him. Two fluorescent bulbs flickered on. There was a feeding-trough with hay piled up in the middle of the small barn.

"Drop me in the trough," Mari requested, her face a mask of pain's canvas.

"Mari, that's--" Joe tried to make Mari see what it was. "Just drop me there and get the baby out of me!" Mari bit his arm.

Joe didn't need any angel to tell him the child was dropping here. So he rushed to the trough and placed Mari in it - so much for promises about Elion's child being royalty. Now he was convinced he had been deceived by that being.

"Come and get him." Mari's yell pushed Joe from his imagination into the barn. He ran to the rear end of the trough.

***

When Joe saw the baby, every grain of doubt germinated into faith in him that this was indeed Elion's son. Never had he heard that a child was born giggling. Never had he seen a child born with a halo around his head. There was so much strength pulsating from this cuddly being - or was it life?

How had he doubted Elion's word to him? Tears of remorse and joy coursed down his cheeks as he watched the well-chiselled tenderness in Mari's arm. Is it possible Elion had brought them here?

Unknown to him the mailbox he had driven into at the highway had no number on it, just cursive lettering that read "LOVE" on one side and "HERE" on the opposite side.

Image Credit - octafiind.com

P.O.Box (PART III)

Continued...

Joe slammed the brakes on the 504 sedan and screeched to a stop outside the prenatal ward driveway in Salem University Teaching Hospital. He was a merger of excitement, fear and confusion.

"Nurse!" He screamed as he scuttled out of the driver's seat, ran round the rear and pulled open the back door.

"Nurse!" He screamed again, this time more out of anger than apprehension. How come the emergency service took vacations when it was needed most? He had tried calling in but found the pair of terrible network and whipped batteries too complex to battle.

He opened the door and helped a groaning Mari out. He didn't even remember to shut the doors; Mari was experiencing grave birth pangs. She was due a week from today, so they were staggered when the baby gave the kicks. They felt it was his routine reality check kick, until the pangs arrived and they had to quickly borrow a neighbor's Peugeot.

"Nurse!"

***

Once again silence enveloped the throne room as rivulets of glory traced every space. This time around the throne room wasn't silence in pain, but in awe.

Elders, Principalities, Dominions, Powers, Mights, and Angels watched entranced as Elion and Jay communicated without words. The cloak of glory that covered the throne blazed like a million suns yet its intensity only poured oceans of love on all present. The Host of Heaven had never witnessed Elion and Jay separate physically, this was the first time.

The Host could hear everything that was being said between the two, but understanding was far from them. This was a highly confidential mission; the Host only knew what they were told. However, it was obvious that Jay was going to execute the relocation plan that Elion had initiated just four days ago after Ad'ahm lost his address.

Four days in Zion was four thousand years on earth.

***

Joe's consternation was a testament of his frayed emotion. He was composed by disposition but the apprehension he felt for Mari's safety and the baby's was tuned a notch higher when the receptionist told him he had to...

"Did you even think before you spat that statement?" Joe yelled at her and everyone in the lobby stared at him funny. "A woman is in labour and all you are worried about is government policy?"

"I'm sorry sir, but we run the risk of being shut down for having your child delivered in this hospital," the receptionist said calmly, she had her finger just under the table by the alarm button should this maniac go loco on her. "It's been in the news for about four weeks now."

Joe looked round at the faces in the lobby and waved at them, they all went about their businesses. Mari who was seated on a bench by the receptionist's desk, was panting as the agony shot up every neuron in her being. Joe looked at her and almost broke down in tears. This is the most he had been frustrated all his life.

When they arrived Salem University Teaching Hospital, they had been informed by the receptionist that Mari had to return to her local area of origin to birth her child. Why? Government policy. It didn't matter that Mari had done all her prenatal check-ups and monitoring in that same hospital. Deroh, that spineless dictator, had just signed a new bill into law, all Y'Israns had to put to birth in their local areas and his word was final.

So Joe had driven from Salem city to Little Town in ninety minutes. The journey usually took three hours. Now they were here and just learnt that they had to present a DNA test result before Mari could be taken into the labour room. And this was the only public-serviced hospital in Little Town. Joe couldn't afford the charges at any of the private hospitals in Little Town.

Little Town was largely a farming town - livestock farming. And most of the farms were owned by livestock exporters, so the cost of living in Little Town was paradoxically big.

Despite Joe's frustrations and rants, nobody would attend to them. It would take about three to four weeks before amniocentesis test results to be gotten. And that was one test result Joe wasn't ready to wait for. Even if the test was carried out, the child's paternity couldn't be determined.

The child's DNA was not earthly, so it could only be spiritually deciphered. Its DNA was written in a language understood only by spirit beings, but how would he explain this to the spiritually inept personnel here.

"Where's your M.D?" Joe turned to the receptionist.

To be Continued... Oh! Have a jolly Christmas

Image credit: Calvin Wray on fineartamerica.com

P.O.Box (PART II)

Continued from yesterday...

And so he did...Unknown to both of them the serpent had slithered away, genetically dispossessed by Luciff, who had seen Ad'ahm's only weakness, his love for his woman. A weakness that should have been strength; his love for her should have surged in him a will to fight for her and drive the serpent away.

Alas, Love. Alas, Love. Or was it just attraction?

Then lips married fruit and teeth violated the sacredness of softness. This was all the sign that Michael needed, for hardly does the teeth bite without the tongue tasting.

***

Michael was at the portal. His legion was. And their weapons descended to the rhythm of Elion's teardrop. A single teardrop rocked the cores of existence, the very forces that bound galaxies and universes threatened collapse at the weight of Elion's tear. The translucent stairwell shuddered as claymores and tower-sized swords gave life to its death - destroyed even before it could be used by who it was intended for.

Bits of translucence flew in all direction as a legion of purity unleashed anger blended with tears. How could Ad'ahm?

***

Elion's throne raged. The mini-lightning bolts gave way to streaks of intense fulguration. Existence had never known and will never know such depth of emotions as that moment when the lips of man bit exquisite flesh with innocent intent evilly expressed.

Man had failed Elion, he had only asked Ad'ahm not to taste of that fruit for a season. There was an appointed time when Ad'ahm would have received further instructions to taste of knowledge; when the fruits were ripe for knowledge.

There was only one portal for man to access Zion now; the portal that connected Hades and Zion. Now, man had to die to enter into life.

***

Elion's rage passed sooner than it had come. The deed was done and punishment was to be served in love. Ad'ahm lost his home, his address, and his mailbox. No more spiritual serenity and fulfilment; these had been traded in for a transient rush of hormones.

However, the epistle had not been concluded. Elion chased Ad'ahm out, but he had a relocation plan and a restoration plan. Eternity would be trapped in humanity, immortality in mortality, soon.

Part III drops tomorrow...

Image credit: agbeat.com

P.O.Box (PART I)

Substantial silence held the throne-tower spellbound as the Host of Zion awaited the decision of the eon. Elion's throne glowed fiercely as His heart radiated tongues of non-scalding flames of love. Mini-lightning bolts trickled through the row of the bowed elders, past the bank of shielded Seraphs and brilliant Cherubs, down the endless ranks of angels raptured in eternal worship.

With their eyelids welded and their beings melded into Elion's all seeing spirit, the Host of Zion beheld the woman and the serpent. She was perfect and It was perfect. But It had been enveloped by the corrupt essences of Luciff.

Gabriel had never seen Elion exude so much emotion at once; this was a blend of love and jealousy and anger and pain and love again. Elion was hurting. First from the loss of Luciff and a third of his host, second from the bridge of the law of possession by Luciff, and third -- the third had not happened -- yet.

Gabriel couldn't watch what everyone was gazing at, the ongoing transaction at Earth's gateway into Zion; that picturesque craftsmanship of nature and an opulent tapestry of beautiful emotions translated into the physical - a garden named Eden. Eden wasn't just a physical location; it was a realm of spiritual serenity and fulfilment. And just beyond the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was at the heart of Eden, stood the portal - a translucent flight of stairs that led up to the outskirts of Zion.

Ad'ahm didn't even know this portal existed. Ad'ahm had no inkling Zion was just a staircase away. He had never savoured from the tree of life and death, if he had, his spirit would have received a revelation of the portal. For Zion itself pulsated with Elion's life - and life calls unto life.

***

Michael stood at the portal with his legion; weapons drawn and glowing in glory. They had one mission only - sever the portal if Ad'ahm failed this temptation. They trembled as the weapons quaked to the surge of Elion's emotions.

***

The portal blazed fiercely in response to Elion's emotions. Gabriel had his spirit affixed on Elion's veins; those emotions swimming in there were strange to him. Indeed, the tangibility of Elion's hurt transcended the physical, it defied the gamut of realms - the whole universe, seen and unseen, could feel Elion's hurt. Not because he didn't have faith in man, but because Luciff envied man so much he would defy Elion.

The Serpent offered the fruit again. The swirl of It's neck and sultry skin knocked away every iota of resistance the woman had.

And the woman took it. She bit it.

"It's beautiful," she muttered in a medley of melodious sensations, the rush of emotions choked her with ecstasy. She turned to Ad'ahm. "You should take a bite," she whispered to him.

"You should," the Serpent echoed her supplication. The man, still entranced by the splendour that Elion had given him to wife, still asleep from the emotional slumber Elion had incited, received the fruit from the woman.

Elion's instructions rang loudly in his consciousness, "The day you taste of the tree of good and evil, you will die."  However, his enchantment to Eve's exquisiteness drowned his will and all he could hear was "it's beautiful."

To be continued...

Image credit: Courtesy GeshaR on fx.worth1000.com

P. O. Box (PREQUEL)

A lot of us are toiling in the wrong addresses,

filling bank tellers when we should be beautifying 

hearts - souldressers;

Standing on the pulpit when we should be 

giving orphans dresses,

forgoing the eternity of the hidden pen

for the transiency of the press list,

Being led by the pangs of

the mouth and belly

rather than by pants of

the Breath and yearnings

of our spirits.

No wonder our parcels arrive and

we never get them, yet blame God

for not meeting our needs.

Are you residing where God asked you to?

or are you just chasing paychecks

and paying checks?

Image credit: Calvin Wray on fineartamerica.com