The low beating of the tom-toms,
The slow beating of the tom-toms,
Low … slow
Slow … low–
Stirs your blood.
Dance!
A night-veiled girl
Whirls softly into a
Circle of light.
Whirls softly… slowly,
Like a wisp of smoke around the fire–
And the tom-toms beat,
And the tom-toms beat,
And the low beating of the tom-toms
Stirs your blood.
(first published in Crisis, 1922)