Ancient Young Souls

Beneath

Tones

Floor

Vibrate ghosts 

Struggle is in evidence everywhere

So too are spirits we know

Bendable young tress

Skins of bovine

Gazelle

Buffalo and deer

Wooden box drums

Drawers of dressers

And shipping crates

Seashells

Ram horns

Elephant tusk

Reeds as weeds

In

Wind

Blown

Truth

And

Metals heated

Bent then cooled

To channel tones

Through ebony wood

And our bodies as

First ones to make music

Dancing atop naked earth

Floors

Clouds

Ephemera and asphalt

Singing dissonances and jagged harmony

That change key and register

In irregular meters

In falsetto

Slap clapping hands

Chest

Hams and bones

Finger popping

New anthems of change

Resisting

Protesting

Western ways

By flatted fifths

Triplets

And the black keys

Sitting above dominant culture 

Up under

Down don’t bother me

Is ceiling as foundation

Entrance to bottomless sky

From death right

To rebirth

Fasting through hunger for

Callings to this

Are souls holding bodies or

Are we letting go 

We don’t know anything

Except

Play-write-pray

Work-sweat-die

Our bodies fall from grace

To taste demise

To escape exhaustion

And where do souls go

When they leave our instrument

To hell and back

Answer yes

Answer

We are called