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
