Where the Ancestors Dance

Verse

Corrugated iron warm beneath my heels

Water tank humming a low steady tone

Washing line flags catching first light

Township waking, but I'm not alone

Verse

Bass climbs up through the steel below

Static and drum from the tower speaker

City still sleeping in the valley of smoke

My chest gets louder, my breath gets deeper

Pre-Chorus

Do I feel them in the wind now

Do I feel them in my spine

Rooftop turning into altar

Every heartbeat keeping time

Chorus

This is where the ancestors dance

This is where the ancestors dance

Feet on the tin roof

Sun climbing my hands

This is where the ancestors dance

Verse

Shadows stretch long off the water tank

Pigeons scatter when the drop comes round

Grandmother's rhythm in my ankle bones

Rising up through borrowed ground

Verse

Neighbors climbing up the fire escape

Circle widens as the light gets gold

Same roof where my uncles used to gather

Same sky holding all we hold

Pre-Chorus

Do I feel them in the wind now

Do I feel them in my spine

Rooftop turning into altar

Every heartbeat keeping time

Chorus

This is where the ancestors dance

This is where the ancestors dance

Feet on the tin roof

Sun climbing my hands

This is where the ancestors dance

Bridge

I used to think the sky was empty

Just wires and smoke and static air

Now I know it's full of voices

Dancing in the morning glare

Pass it down through moving shoulders

Pass it down, it lives right here

Chorus

This is where the ancestors dance

This is where the ancestors dance

Feet on the tin roof

Sun climbing my hands

This is where the ancestors dance