Alligators cling to the thatched walls.
Five men from Zaire
dressed in Kente cloth and leather caps
dance in a wriggling line onto stage.
A cow sounds from a thick metal bell.
Barefoot with bare midriffs
their daughters dance through the crowd,
rattle their hips in a circle,
undulating their arms above their hearts.
They lift closed baskets and shake them,
singing in an ancient language
stories and secrets which remain secret.
The daughters
lift the lids off their baskets
and white birds
fly out of their mouths.
The fathers
stoke their instruments
like udders
steaming with music.
