04-29-2016, 12:53 AM
West African melodies dance veiled softly,
belying tough guy stance in blossom frills.
Feeling filtered through masquerade, lofty
messages from beyond the righteous hills,
mourning beauties go to their window sills
----------------------------------------------------
African griots are in the wind above Minneapolis,
their sounds are an elegy to a brother passed.
The whirlwind of performance he maintained
spread through skies caressed in childrens’ eyes.
He summoned the grace, the sensual breath
of beauty in female form, thought, voice,
and led the tribe of urban spirit raiders, televised.
Wry, conspiratorial glances went back and forth
among his chosen, those who stood with him
on that cliff of recognition, plunging night
after night into the brew of hysterical applause.
All the melodies, the trances, the prayers
lie suspended inside memories pulsing.
belying tough guy stance in blossom frills.
Feeling filtered through masquerade, lofty
messages from beyond the righteous hills,
mourning beauties go to their window sills
----------------------------------------------------
African griots are in the wind above Minneapolis,
their sounds are an elegy to a brother passed.
The whirlwind of performance he maintained
spread through skies caressed in childrens’ eyes.
He summoned the grace, the sensual breath
of beauty in female form, thought, voice,
and led the tribe of urban spirit raiders, televised.
Wry, conspiratorial glances went back and forth
among his chosen, those who stood with him
on that cliff of recognition, plunging night
after night into the brew of hysterical applause.
All the melodies, the trances, the prayers
lie suspended inside memories pulsing.