I Dance

I dance to keep you with me

Wherever life’s journey may take me.

This is the only time when I can connect with you

emotionally, physically, and spiritually…

I dance away my fears,

I dance away troubles, and negativity

in my life,

I dance away my broken heart and tears…

I dance for the ancestors,

For their blood, tears, sweat, and pain...

For those who died in the bowls of the ships;

For the pregnant women who threw their bodies into

the black ocean to save the lives inside

from the tortures that lie ahead.

I dance for the generations that never saw the light of day

and those that are yet to be.

I dance a prayer for our planet...

My dance is meditation for peace.

I dance for love--

I am love -- when I dance.

I dance for the air you breathe;

My dance is life itself for me.

I know you do not look my way some times.

That just makes me dance harder--

to feel the vibrations of your soul.

I dance for fire; I dance for the rain--

In balance, I am nothing... No pain.

I dance to soothe and tantalize,

I dance with my entire being.

I dance to feel free.

I dance away my depression,

It’s the one form of expressing myself that is totally--authentically me.

It is the way I know best…

Actions speak louder than words.

I dance for my father -- and my father's father -- and his father

who survived the middle passage

Only to be whipped and scarred, worked to a young death, hunted down by

packs of white men with bloodhounds,

Gutted, tarred-and-feathered, hacked, lynched -- hung from trees

like delicate fruit.

I dance to reclaim your stolen treasures,

Your languages, your culture, the music --

Your thriving communities--Wilmington, Springfield, Chicago,

Elaine, Ocoee, Greenwood, Rosewood, Columbia.

You could not save yourself.

I dance for your mothers, wives and daughters

that you could not protect.

Yes, my father...

You survived it all.

I dance always and forever

for you!