Carnival of Masks
© Rommi Smith, BBC Artist in Residence for the Commonwealth Games 2002

Written after watching In the Beginning a performance weaving together African creation stories with African dance and music from the Northern Chamber Orchestra, at Manchester’s Zion Centre 28th June 2002.

First performed on Vanessa Kirkpatrick’s programme Saturday 29th June 2002.

Step forward into moonlight’s
Spotlight, to hear a child’s voice spell
the world out, makes you count time
passing on your fingers, the echo
Of playground lullaby remembered

Tears loosen like teeth
Caught in a handkerchief
Of adulthood, the tooth fairy
Can’t make the curtain call
She is busy rewarding youth

Who’s butterflies dance on faces
Hover above glitter and diamante
Pathways to memory
Reflecting the moon
And the sky’s river of stars

The future is seen through
Pink feather boa masks
It’s winged and lit for angels
To find home and spirits to
Pass through

Songs are water
Fingers trail ripples
Trace rhythm to finale
Circles of meaning
Rotate to learning
‘Til we begin again