The Fissured Tongue Series
Cheat House
Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah
Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah
"Self-Portrait" by Malvin Gray Johnson; oil on canvas; 38 1⁄4 x 30 in.; 1934; open source from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
We’re always watching. Watching the forked pathway behind the hedgerow, we’re watching. Just watching. Someone has opened the outside door & we wait to hear how all these wounds started, we’re alive looking straight ahead into the future to see the predators. Suicide or madness overtakes some prisoners working on the field. & there isn’t a noticeable amount of repentance in their talks. We think they’ve created the burning. 57 sugarcane farms are burnt. 32 rice farms are burnt. A large grass field is burnt. Hundreds of tomato farms are burnt. Each family is here. Father, mother & children in groups. We’re trapped here. We’re scape goats. No arrest has been made. We’re the victims, we’re the clouts. I’m imprisoned & no one suggests that we can’t talk to one another though the guards are watching, looking at those who make any effort to talk. Or maybe they know something about global warming & that, fire can eat up anything, including the ocean at any time. & I’m glad maybe they know & nobody will be arrested. We want to know what they’ve for us. But I can’t trust them in this house with every carbon dioxide from the 7 villages. Are we here to be extricated? The television set is only a few feet further to the left, I barely glance its way when I sit on old plastic chair working for my escape. & outside the fireflies have inherited their properties & the moon seems to be full.
About the Author
Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, who is an algebraist and artist, works in mixed media. His poetry, songs, prose, art and hybrid have appeared in numerous journals. He lives in the southern part of Ghana, in Spain, and the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota. Yours sincerely, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah.
About the Art
"The compressed space in Self-Portrait speaks to Malvin Gray Johnson’s profound awareness of modernist compositional devices. The easel at the left side of the canvas identifies him as an artist, and the masks in the background make an assertive statement about his African American heritage. In 1934, the year he painted his self-portrait, Johnson joined the ranks of the Public Works of Art Project, the first of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal art programs, which paid artists a monthly stipend. Although the job lasted only six months, Johnson was finally able to paint full time. Ironically, the year proved to be Johnson’s most prolific but also the last of his short life."
Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, who is an algebraist and artist, works in mixed media. His poetry, songs, prose, art and hybrid have appeared in numerous journals. He lives in the southern part of Ghana, in Spain, and the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota. Yours sincerely, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah.
About the Art
"The compressed space in Self-Portrait speaks to Malvin Gray Johnson’s profound awareness of modernist compositional devices. The easel at the left side of the canvas identifies him as an artist, and the masks in the background make an assertive statement about his African American heritage. In 1934, the year he painted his self-portrait, Johnson joined the ranks of the Public Works of Art Project, the first of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal art programs, which paid artists a monthly stipend. Although the job lasted only six months, Johnson was finally able to paint full time. Ironically, the year proved to be Johnson’s most prolific but also the last of his short life."
