From the Heart

Blessings of Nataraja

I am a child of fate.

My late grandmother who,

To her distaste saw her artistic family

leave their traits in haste,

for necessity, privilege, opportunity

Tuning out their ways to speak

Tuning our their feats, to see her

Granddaughter

What a startler

Kicking and dancing to

Beats with her feet

See it once and she can repeat it

I once heard that a friend of my father's

Saw his daughter

And said to him

I don't like seeing talent getting squandered

Call her, and show her where she's from

A daughter of survivors

Of colonies and some

More.

Through decades of resistance

Decades of persistence

She rises, holdin' up people with her feet

For,

My grandmother had a dream so big.

Too big, that someone from her lineage

Would perform and configure

Art - the showy part

On stages big and small with

Heart. The kinda heart

That merges who she is with where she's from.

What she sees with what she's done

How to be with how to run

With dreams so big

And close to none.