inspired by "obnoxious liberals"
By folade mondisa speaks (‘01)

"obnoxious liberals"
(68X102 acrylic & oil stick on canvas, 1982)
-for jean michel basquiat

these are contradictions:

brown face western cow boy hats
polka dot boxer shorts
indigo toes pointing to dollar sign chests
and targets instead of corneas

blood remnants pervade
the right leg of black skeletons
shackles razoring the wrists
suspending agape mouth
and wounds instead of corneas

staring at abe’s left-fisted red aura
clutching the spines of four skinny arrowheads
where gold is synonymous with slave

you were genius
squeezing one hundred years over
one hundred and two inches:
the ends of spears
veins of leaves
and remains of brown

from your own flesh
gangrene galloped over pores
before your organs crawled through
their fifth entrance

and your C O D E B L U E
not seen or heard from a hospital
but was the blaring surround sound
of a blue TV screen airing from the panes
of your bedroom window

T H I S I S N O T A T E S T
T H I S I S A N E M E R G E N C Y

these are obnoxious
contradictions, jean michel
NOT FOR SALE
repeatedly white-splashed across your canvases
even your death was a commodity

Copyright © folade mondisa speaks. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the author

folade mondisa speaks is a poet and artist, originally from Ohio. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA from Wright State University. Her visual art and literary work have appeared in Nexus: Journal of Literature & Art and Milk Magazine. her CD of poetry and sound, corpus twenty seven, is an exploration through the life of artist, Jean Michel Basquiat. She is cofounder of two artist collectives; stickwimin and ink & image productions, both artist collectives that produce multimedia showcases. They have performed in various cities around the country and in Chicago, including 1926 Gallery; Insight Arts and The Chopin Theatre, sponsored by The Guild Complex. folade resides in Chicago.

Copyright © 1997-2006 by Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

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