Music & Dance of Brasil & the Caribbean

Drowning in our Bed

Africa calls to across time and space
the persistance of a ressonant heart
tada boom boom tada tada boom boom tada
Rhythms in our bones - they flow in our blood
I feel this drawing me out of myself

How long have we been held silent captives
This life pulse heard only in hearts and heads
Distracted by other men's fear of blood
Listening to their words of either/or
They tell us to hate our bodies, this world

I circled the camp three times hearing echoes
the paths leading me back to this one spot
The intensity of the polyrhythms
Awe me in their power to touch the core
I stand trasfixed for a time then turn away

Across the marshland I wet my feet
I pass down the path and listen intently
Beats rise in the air in all directions
Sonic rain falling down like a curtain
In the break between - silence consumes all

I step on a bridge - a place in between
Beneath me water, behind me the earth
The soft voice of a day bird arrests me
Caught between the silence and sound i stop
The break ends and the the rythms well up

In response to this calling of power
The dogs nearby begin to howl as well
whether from fear, training, or in chorus
adding elements of call and response
I reflect on how long it has been

The drums call the nachons to come dance with joy
The dancers manifest the gods rhythms
The rhythms wake the lwa from Ginen
In the crossroads of this art which is life
Rests the spirit of past, present, and future

An image comes forth in my mind's eye
A grainy image on television
An Amerindian looks to a roadside
Refuse flutters along the grass nearby
A single tea streaks down his sullen face