Dance and let Dance

Dance and let dance

You own your rythm

Live and let live

Your life is your own

Eat and let eat

As long as it is your food

Sleep and let sleep

As long as it is with your eyes

Why not Dance and let dance?

What quarrel should I have with your legs?

Your arms? Your waist? Why should the twist of your hips bother me so?

Is it the joy I see in your eyes?

The orgasmic ecstasy I see in every movement of your body?

The sense that you do not care?

People think you do not care

Not about the rivers of blood flowing through the country

The screams of the tortured

The wails of those who mourn

The silent cries of the voiceless

The diseases that have arrived and those on the way

It does not matter what they think

Think and let think

Care and let care

Dance and let dance

Azonto, Shoki, Shaku Shaku, Zanku, Gbese

Whichever way your body wants to move

Only you can take it there

The peace we seek

The sanity we yearn for

The wisdom that eludes us

Can only come from within

From our love, passion, creativity, courage, selflessness, freedom,  gratitude and all those things that bring us alive

It cannot be policed, censored or controlled

That right there is the problem

We leave real problems and manufacture crisis where none exists

We leave the leprosy patient to chase after the sufferer of ring worm

No matter how many storms rage or how hard the rain falls, the sun still shows up

Dance and let dance

We are not judges

We are not the jury of life

Dance your own dance

Share your own joy or keep it to yourself

Let it be your right

Don’t tell others when, how, why or where to dance

Dance and let dance

Dance like David

Dance like the devil himself

Who cares?

When we all get to the gates of heaven, we will be asked

How many times we were kind, how many wounds we healed and how many tears we wiped away

We will be asked about the screams, wails and cries and what we did to help

No one will ask how many times we danced

Let us think about this and prepare our answers

In other words, let us mind our own business

Dance and let dance

See, my moves are slicker than yours!

•Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a gender specialist, social entrepreneur and writer. She is the founder of 

Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at [email protected]