Ashes of the Ancestors' Dance

Verse

Backyard fire pit, embers low

Ash on my ankles where the coals used to glow

Auntie's chair still warm from the night

Smoke in my braids, catching amber light

Concrete yard where the church bench sat

Grandfather's rhythm in the way I clap

Speaker wire strung through the fig tree limb

Bassline low like a hymn

Pre-Chorus

Can you feel them in the embers

Waiting for the beat to start

Every spark that the fire remembers

Lands here in my chest, in my chest

Chorus

Ashes of the ancestors' dance

Rising with the sway of my hips, my hands

Feet stir the ground where the old ones stand

Ashes of the ancestors' dance

Verse

Braai smoke curling past the wire fence

Neighbors' voices, call and response

Bottle caps pressed in the dust like scars

This yard remembers every star

Grandmother's shawl on the washing line

Wind moves it slow like it's keeping time

I move my waist where her feet once turned

Same old fire, still it burns

Pre-Chorus

Can you feel them in the embers

Waiting for the beat to start

Every spark that the fire remembers

Lands here in my chest, in my chest

Chorus

Ashes of the ancestors' dance

Rising with the sway of my hips, my hands

Feet stir the ground where the old ones stand

Ashes of the ancestors' dance

Bridge

I am the coal and I am the flame

I am the smoke that still knows my name

Every grain of ash on my skin

Is a door that the old ones walk in

Chorus

Ashes of the ancestors' dance

Rising with the sway of my hips, my hands

Feet stir the ground where the old ones stand

Ashes of the ancestors' dance