Where the Scattering Began by Merle Collins Lyrics

Here, on the streets of London
Where, some say, the scattering began
we come to find our faces again
We come to measure the rhythm of our paces
against the call of the Ghanaian drum that talks
against the wail of the mbira from Zimbabwe
that yields music to the thumbs
We come with faces denying names
gone English, Irish, Scottish
We come with hands that speak
in ways the tongue has forgotten
We come with intonations
that reshape languages we have been given
We come with eyes that tell a story
the brain cannot recall
We come with the blue of the sea so close
that we lift our eyes with yearning
to the emptiness of the skies
Some of us come with the memoryof
forest sounds that we have never known
We all come speaking so simply
of complicated things. Here
when we recognize each other
on the streets of London
hands and eyes and ears
begin to shape answers
to questions tongue can find
no words for asking.