Tribal Drums

     Experiments with drum beats led me down a percussion path in my writing.  I was searching for syllabic percussive rhythm for wordplay against differing drum sounds.  It was not as drug-induced as it seems and I produced a small body of work with differing results.

     This is one such piece based on a Native American ritualistic drum riff and chant:

A QUE OF VELDT UNDERHEAD

This languid she

approaches

     with eyes exploding emotion

          and her hips swish

               feline heat with

          her gaze signing

     my being

(tattooing

my seed).

     "To what craft

          her artful talents

               other than dress

          and eyes

     be braided?"

I want her naked.

She bares primal love

     in the wilderness

          and we become Cherokee

               trading beats

          and piercing
     our treaty.

Swain

like colored wind at night-

     I am her blanket

          and she is my ground-

               splayed within the down

          of our one

     tribal

sky.