When You Laugh I Die
“When You Laugh, I Die”
15.5 x 10 in ✧ Medium: Chalk Pastel on brown paper
It starts with your fingers.
My skin had begun to peel away like that of an orange, though any sweetness had left my insides long ago. I couldn’t allow her to hear my voice shake “how much for the man ?” I demanded, she only glanced up for a second much more concerned with picking the dirt from under her nails. “priestess! abeg the man” she spat an answer at my feet “three thousand”
“and the woman?”
It was now that her eyes began to gleam and mine shot to the ground '‘SSSIX THOUSSSAND” she hissed, the words slipped from her lips and slithered onto the ground beneath my feet. “Get it done” I responded swiftly, as I handed her that photograph both fear and relief left my body. “ I dey drop your money in one weeks time” I said while turning to leave the shrine.
“And what of the child ?” she called out to me mischievously, “shall I return her gift ?”
Now these words wrapped themselves around my ankles. She held my wrist turning my body to face her own, stroking the photo in her hand she looked up at me and said warmly “Laughter is a beautiful song dear child, by your fingertips I dey see you fi miss am”. I couldn’t let her words begin to encase me. Though I felt them staring to bind my heart, it was already to late to entertain such thoughts.
The sun was hot and bright as I stepped out of the shrine. I wanted to be up there with it
instead I felt like sound a clay pot makes when shattered.
Press play to watch a scene from Abderrahmane Sissako’s 2006 film “Bamako”. Senegalese singer Aïssa Maïga preforms Christie Azumah & her band The Uppers International’s song “Naam”. This is a northern Ghanaian highlife song, from their album titled “Din Ya Sugri”
