Dancing Sticks

Dancing Sticks

Calypso beat fueled
by the dance of stick upon skins.
Reggae across tom-tom to rim and back.
Doff the high hat
in riff and kicks
as toes tap in time
to the dancing sticks.

Yellowbird, up high in banana tree,
Yellowbird, you sit all alone like me...

If drum of steel, metallic thwang,
gives notes to rhythmic pulse.
Heartbeat cadence
pumping blood
urges muscle in response.
Bodies sway to tribal call
as dancing sticks rise and fall.

You can fly away, in the sky away.
You're more lucky than me.

Four piece drum set, foot run base,
another taps; the symbols race.
Two hands, three drums go round the world
as fingers control the thrum and twirl.
Change-up rhythms, taps and flicks
so fast they blur--
those dancing sticks.

Wish that I was a yellow bird
I'd fly away with you
But I am not a yellow bird
So here I sit--
nothing else to do

Each hand a beat that's all its own,
so too each foot--four separate beats
Practiced patterns when you catch the blur--
Over, under, back, repeat.
Fly-away snare; block the tone
Use rushes, boards, rock back the throne.
Ride the cymbal, make China splash,
cow the bell, stack and crash.
If one you drop, another pick,
calypso tango the dancing sticks.

Picker coming soon, pick from night til noon,
Black and yellow you, like banana too,
You should fly away, in de sky a way,
He gonna pick you some day.

Precision counts, must count the notes,
with brush or mallet, on tom or snare,
Frame the pattern, forge the march,
drumbeats vibrate the very air.
Set the measure, enhance the mix,
flip and turn those dancing sticks.

Drummer boy, playing the drums for me,
drummer boy, you sit all alone like me.
Gonna come to you, sing a song for you,
Please don't look so sad, I will make you glad,
Play a dancin' beat, your drums sound so sweet
you gonna play me some day.....

NOTES: See the song being played although I didn't give him any warning or warm up time. It tales a moment or two to load.
http://youtu.be/ngKWvIumEJU

Italicized words from the Haitian song Yellow Bird, written by Michel Mauleart Monton with lyrics from the poet Oswald Durand.