Griot Fire

Circle in the dust

Moon hanging low

Elders on a wooden stool

Kids in a row

Story in his hands

Quran is me

Name of every ancestor

Carved in memory

Old tradition in West Africa

Passes through the mouth

Through the palm, through the drum

If you know the name

Then the spirit stays

Call it once, call it twice

Hey

Old tradition in West Africa

Living in the zone

When the fire burns out

Hold it in your chest

Let the children know

What was given long ago

Paint up on the wall

Indigo and red

Patterns from a grandmother

Yearning in her head

Mass upon the rafters

Sneaking to the dance

That's what starts the sparkle

When the bodies trend

Old tradition in West Africa

Passes through the mouth

Through the palm, through the drum

If you know the name

Then the spirit stays

Call it once, call it twice

Hey, come

Oh, yeah

Old tradition in West Africa

Living in the zone

When the fire burns out

Hold it in your chest

Let the children know

What was given long ago

Salt on the wind

Mark it at dawn

Purples in her whisper

Turn into a song

Venice on her grace

The curry on her string

Watch it keep remembering

Peaches, you the same

Old tradition in West Africa

Passes through the mouth

Through the palm, through the drum

If you know the name

Then the spirit stays

Call it once, call it twice

Hey, come

Old tradition in West Africa

Living in the zone

When the fire burns out