Kanaga

Keep up now, keep up the chant,
For days we have been sewing.
Boy you are, and here you stand,
Eagle-faced and glowing.

One great pole comes off your head,
With two poles cross the last,
Careful now, cross the thread,
We'll help you with that clasp.

Place it all atop your head,
To bridge you to the heavens.
Deliver now the empty dead,
And guide them in your presence.

Bold white wood and charred black fur,
Patched all along the bark.
The boy is gone, but don't deter!
The mask will do the work.

A bird you are with feathered face,
Lion in the grass,
A novice shallow in his grace,
Novice to the mask.

Dance! Child, become the mask,
The robes and all the fibers,
Dance! Send them home at last,
Break down these webs of spiders!

Dancing now to free the damned,
Dancing to the chorus!
Man you are, and here you stand,
The Kanaga before us!