the babalawo says so.
the Opele & Ikin
have spoken fate on his tray.
he has heard & told it–
his palm nuts & divination chains
are never wrong
until they are
& even then
it must be the god of kolob
who meddles with the patterns
after they are laid down
& not orisha orunmila
if you look closely
you can see smudges
where new lines are drawn
but his trays are no different
from the percentages
i tally daily. i call it probability
but the babalawo knows
what they sum already
perhaps
between my math
& his magic
there is space
for hope
***Are polls more accurate ways to project the future than Yoruba divination?
Opele and Ikin are divination chains and palm nuts used for divination by Yoruba priests of Ifa, or babalawos. Orisha Orunmila is the Spirit of Wisdom, or the oracular manifestation of God. Boomie and Noel, I hope I got this right, and please correct any oopses in here! This poem is Noel’s fault, as he (jokingly) said in a Tweet to me that the die is cast and the winner has won, because the babalawo says so.
Susan Daniels Poetry 
I am going to give you a Yoruba name…will email it to you when I get home, later today. O kare ore mi…well done my friend.
Oh, thank you, Boomie! Glad you liked…
ha. i dont trust polls at all…they are far too easy to manipulate…and use to manipulate….we shall see soon…and of this i am a little afraid….
Oh, I am much afraid myself, Brian…
Divine!
Thanks, David. I adore your puns! I do kind of have this packed with gods & divination, which begged for someone to go there–glad you did ;).
Polls are persuasion tools. I laugh listening to NPR fighting to sound objective as they support Obama, and talk radio wants you to see an apocalypse if Obama is re-elected.
My business, medicine, is frozen — we are awaiting the results so we can plan appropriately.
Yes, everything has a spin. I can’t wait until things stop spinning so we can do the business of a country again.
What an interesting poem, Susan. I shall be following the links to understand it properly 🙂
Oh, Polly, it is just a quirky little thing…hope I did not make you research overly much!
I like ‘quirky’ 🙂
Hee, hee–me too!
This is brilliant, and I do see some humour in ti. Bewteen his magic and your maths, I think your maths might be more accurate. lol! In the other world, you were a Yoruba priestess, I am sure. 🙂
🙂
I am happy with the results of both his magic and my math!