Across
the stage the dancer glides like long lofty waves of water.
She
moves in sync with the music,but in her heart she only hears her song.
Her
arms curve behind her & undulate like the wings of a long ago forgotten
bird.
She
serves the dance as a sacrificial offering,
but
her secret dance is hers only, her private gift,
for
her heart years ago had given her body its patience.
Her
taut muscles drank in that precious patience
time
after time because that preciousness had been baptized in rivers of that
water.
Each
time her secret dance became a more cherished gift.
With
it her body became the notes, the rhythm and the melody of her song.
Her
body,sinuous and knife-like, sliced and pierced the air around her offering
as
she seemed to soar with the wings of that graceful bird.
Her
body, her instrument, embraces the motions of that agile bird,
and
the witnesses of her token experience patience
seldom
heard. Her mind rewinds time as the watchers watch her unfolding offering,
but
her past overcomes her secret dance. Her long flow becomes rooted water.
She
attempts to recapture her private dance,but her song
stands
still, and the quietness frightens her,for she fears she has forever lost
her gift.
In
her mind, she desperately searches for her private gift.
Her
mind,then,romembers what her body cannot as she recalls the Sankofa* bird.
As
she unwinds her past, her heart attempts to replay her song.
She
remembers her ancestors' imposed willingness to endure; when patience
had
to be their virtue. Her body begins to contort like the water
of
the Atlantic when her ancestors were used as others' offering.
Her
raven-hued ancestors were the sweet imposed offering
to
the Americas. She desperately attempts to regather her private gift,
but
instead she recalls the Atlantic's Middle Passage was her ancestors' burial
water.
Her
heart & her body battle to capture the essence of the Sankofa bird.
Her
heart suddenly consoles her body with the spirit of the Sankofa,and patience
rains
down over her, so her heart can again play her song.
Slowly
& sweetly she again hears her song,
and
she, with great gratitude, re-issues her dance offering
because
she reclaims her past & moves forward with greater patience,
and
her secret dance will be forever hers, her gift.
"To
make the best of your future, you must visit your past, "echoes the bird
through
her dance. Again she, stronger, glides across the stage like long water.
And
so ... Her body,water-like, regains its patience.
Her
offering is her gift.
"Dancers,
reclaim your past and you will know yourself now," chants the songbird.
*Sankofa-The
symbol of Sankofa is that of a bird whose head is faced in the opposite
direction of its body. This emphasizes that even though the bird is advancing,
it periodically makes it a point to examine or return to its past since
this is the only way for one to have a better future. |