Drum Man Take Me Home

Deino Scott

Beat beat beat the beat calls

Across Jackson Square, across the Mississippi

The horns call

But the beat captures!

Brass and snare

Members of some displaced tribes

The backbeat tom-tom and metal cry…

I' m still here!

Congo square calls

But I am forever a member of a tribe now called Free

Free but never forgetting

The sun-hot warriors glisten

Then they come

The gold, the red, the ginger, the bronze, the ebony

The women strong and sensuous

Take me someplace only those of my line can go

Beyond the snare, beyond the tuba, the trumpet

Beyond the modern music on the top

The place where hide and wood and hands make music

The beat the beat the beat

My heart pounds heavily to the beat

I am lost to the beat

My hips want to move, my legs to dance

But I must return

The trumpet calls a loud, lonely note

The journey will not be forgotten

Never

The beat...remains