Selected Poems of Langston Hughes Read online

  But mother and child

  Thought it fun.

  Homecoming

  I went back in the alley

  And I opened up my door.

  All her clothes was gone:

  She wasn’t home no more.

  I pulled back the covers,

  I made down the bed.

  A whole lot of room

  Was the only thing I had.

  Final Curve

  When you turn the corner

  And you run into yourself

  Then you know that you have turned

  All the corners that are left.

  Little Green Tree

  It looks like to me

  My good-time days done past.

  Nothin’ in this world

  Is due to last.

  I used to play

  And I played so dog-gone hard.

  Now old age has

  Dealt my bad-luck card.

  I look down the road

  And I see a little tree.

  A little piece down the road.

  I see a little tree.

  Them cool green leaves

  Is waitin’ to shelter me.

  O, little tree!

  Crossing

  It was that lonely day, folks,

  When I walked all by myself.

  My friends was all around me

  But it was as if they’d left.

  I went up on a mountain

  In a high cold wind

  And the coat that I was wearing

  Was mosquito-netting thin.

  I went down in the valley

  And I crossed an icy stream

  And the water I was crossing

  Was no water in a dream

  And the shoes I was wearing

  No protection for that stream.

  Then I stood out on a prairie

  And as far as I could see

  Wasn’t nobody on that prairie

  Looked like me.

  It was that lonely day, folks,

  I walked all by myself:

  My friends was right there with me

  But was just as if they’d left.

  Widow Woman

  Oh, that last long ride is a

  Ride everybody must take.

  Yes, that last long ride’s a

  Ride everybody must take.

  And that final stop is a

  Stop everybody must make.

  When they put you in the ground and

  They throw dirt in your face,

  I say put you in the ground and

  Throw dirt in your face,

  That’s one time, pretty papa,

  You’ll sure stay in your place.

  You was a mighty lover and you

  Ruled me many years.

  A mighty lover, baby, cause you

  Ruled me many years—

  If I live to be a thousand

  I’ll never dry these tears.

  I don’t want nobody else and

  Don’t nobody else want me.

  I say don’t want nobody else

  And don’t nobody else want me—

  Yet you never can tell when a

  Woman like me is free!

  LAMENT

  OVER

  LOVE

  Misery

  Play the blues for me.

  Play the blues for me.

  No other music

  ’Ll ease my misery.

  Sing a soothin’ song.

  Said a soothin’ song,

  Cause the man I love’s done

  Done me wrong.

  Can’t you understand,

  O, understand

  A good woman’s cryin’

  For a no-good man?

  Black gal like me,

  Black gal like me

  ’S got to hear a blues

  For her misery.

  Ballad of the Fortune Teller

  Madam could look in your hand—

  Never seen you before—

  And tell you more than

  You’d want to know.

  She could tell you about love,

  And money, and such.

  And she wouldn’t

  Charge you much.

  A fellow came one day.

  Madam took him in.

  She treated him like

  He was her kin.

  Gave him money to gamble.

  She gave him bread,

  And let him sleep in her

  Walnut bed.

  Friends tried to tell her

  Dave meant her no good.

  Looks like she could’ve knowed it

  If she only would.

  He mistreated her terrible,

  Beat her up bad.

  Then went off and left her.

  Stole all she had.

  She tried to find out

  What road he took.

  There wasn’t a trace

  No way she looked.

  That woman who could foresee

  What your future meant,

  Couldn’t tell, to save her,

  Where Dave went.

  Cora

  I broke my heart this mornin’,

  Ain’t got no heart no more.

  Next time a man comes near me

  Gonna shut an’ lock my door

  Cause they treat me mean—

  The ones I love.

  They always treat me mean.

  Down and Out

  Baby, if you love me

  Help me when I’m down and out

  If you love me, baby,

  Help me when I’m down and out,

  I’m a po’ gal

  Nobody gives a damn about.

  The credit man’s done took ma clothes

  And rent time’s nearly here.

  I’d like to buy a straightenin’ comb,

  An’ I need a dime fo’ beer.

  I need a dime fo’ beer.

  Young Gal’s Blues

  I’m gonna walk to the graveyard

  ’Hind ma friend Miss Cora Lee.

  Gonna walk to the graveyard

  ’Hind ma dear friend Cora Lee

  Cause when I’m dead some

  Body’ll have to walk behind me.

  I’m goin’ to the po’ house

  To see ma old Aunt Clew.

  Goin’ to the po’ house

  To see ma old Aunt Clew.

  When I’m old an’ ugly

  I’ll want to see somebody, too.

  The po’ house is lonely

  An’ the grave is cold.

  O, the po’ house is lonely,

  The graveyard grave is cold.

  But I’d rather be dead than

  To be ugly an’ old.

  When love is gone what

  Can a young gal do?

  When love is gone, O,

  What can a young gal do?

  Keep on a-lovin’ me, daddy,

  Cause I don’t want to be blue.

  Ballad of the Girl Whose Name Is Mud

  A girl with all that raising,

  It’s hard to understand

  How she could get in trouble

  With a no-good man.

  The guy she gave her all to

  Dropped her with a thud.

  Now amongst decent people,

  Dorothy’s name is mud.

  But nobody’s seen her shed a tear,

  Nor seen her hang her head.

  Ain’t even heard her murmur,

  Lord, I wish I was dead!

  No! The hussy’s telling everybody—

  Just as though it was no sin—

  That if she had a chance

  She’d do it agin’!

  Hard Daddy

  I went to ma daddy,

  Says Daddy I have got the blues.

  Went to ma daddy,

  Says Daddy I have got the blues.

  Ma daddy says, Honey,

  Can’t you bring no better news?

  I cried on his shoulder but

  He turned his back o
n me.

  Cried on his shoulder but

  He turned his back on me.

  He said a woman’s cryin’s

  Never gonna bother me.

  I wish I had wings to

  Fly like the eagle flies.

  Wish I had wings to

  Fly like the eagle flies.

  I’d fly on ma man an’

  I’d scratch out both his eyes.

  Midwinter Blues

  In the middle of the winter,

  Snow all over the ground.

  In the middle of the winter,

  Snow all over the ground—

  ’Twas the night befo’ Christmas

  My good man turned me down.

  Don’t know’s I’d mind his goin’

  But he left me when the coal was low.

  Don’t know’s I’d mind his goin’

  But he left when the coal was low.

  Now, if a man loves a woman

  That ain’t no time to go.

  He told me that he loved me

  But he must a been tellin’ a lie.

  He told me that he loved me.

  He must a been tellin’ a lie.

  But he’s the only man I’ll

  Love till the day I die.

  I’m gonna buy me a rose bud

  An’ plant it at my back door,

  Buy me a rose bud,

  Plant it at my back door,

  So when I’m dead they won’t need

  No flowers from the store.

  Little Old Letter

  It was yesterday morning

  I looked in my box for mail.

  The letter that I found there

  Made me turn right pale.

  Just a little old letter,

  Wasn’t even one page long—

  But it made me wish

  I was in my grave and gone.

  I turned it over,

  Not a word writ on the back.

  I never felt so lonesome

  Since I was born black.

  Just a pencil and paper,

  You don’t need no gun nor knife—

  A little old letter

  Can take a person’s life.

  Lament over Love

  I hope my child’ll

  Never love a man.

  I say I hope my child’ll

  Never love a man.

  Love can hurt you

  Mo’n anything else can.

  I’m goin’ down to the river

  An’ I ain’t goin’ there to swim;

  Down to the river,

  Ain’t goin’ there to swim.

  My true love’s left me

  And I’m goin’ there to think about him.

  Love is like whiskey,

  Love is like red, red wine.

  Love is like whiskey,

  Like sweet red wine.

  If you want to be happy

  You got to love all the time.

  I’m goin’ up in a tower

  Tall as a tree is tall,

  Up in a tower

  Tall as a tree is tall.

  Gonna think about my man—

  And let my fool-self fall.

  MAGNOLIA

  FLOWERS

  Daybreak in Alabama

  When I get to be a composer

  I’m gonna write me some music about

  Daybreak in Alabama

  And I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it

  Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist

  And falling out of heaven like soft dew.

  I’m gonna put some tall tall trees in it

  And the scent of pine needles

  And the smell of red clay after rain

  And long red necks

  And poppy colored faces

  And big brown arms

  And the field daisy eyes

  Of black and white black white black people

  And I’m gonna put white hands

  And black hands and brown and yellow hands

  And red clay earth hands in it

  Touching everybody with kind fingers

  And touching each other natural as dew

  In that dawn of music when I

  Get to be a composer

  And write about daybreak

  In Alabama.

  Cross

  My old man’s a white old man

  And my old mother’s black.

  If ever I cursed my white old man

  I take my curses back.

  If ever I cursed my black old mother

  And wished she were in hell,

  I’m sorry for that evil wish

  And now I wish her well.

  My old man died in a fine big house.

  My ma died in a shack.

  I wonder where I’m gonna die,

  Being neither white nor black?

  Magnolia Flowers

  The quiet fading out of life

  In a corner full of ugliness.

  I went lookin’ for magnolia flowers

  But I didn’t find ’em.

  I went lookin’ for magnolia flowers in the dusk

  And there was only this corner

  Full of ugliness.

      ’Scuse me,

      I didn’t mean to stump ma toe on you, lady.

  There ought to be magnolias

  Somewhere in this dusk.

      ’Scuse me,

      I didn’t mean to stump ma toe on you.

  Mulatto

      I am your son, white man!

  Georgia dusk

  And the turpentine woods.

  One of the pillars of the temple fell.

      You are my son!

      Like hell!

  The moon over the turpentine woods.

  The Southern night

  Full of stars,

  Great big yellow stars.

      What’s a body but a toy?

                 Juicy bodies

                 Of nigger wenches

                 Blue black

                 Against black fences.

                 O, you little bastard boy,

                 What’s a body but a toy?

  The scent of pine wood stings the soft night air.

                 What’s the body of your mother?

  Silver moonlight everywhere.

                 What’s the body of your mother?

  Sharp pine scent in the evening air.

                           A nigger night,

                           A nigger joy,

                           A little yellow

                           Bastard boy.

                 Naw, you ain’t my brother.

                 Niggers ain’t my brother.

                 Not ever.

                 Niggers ain’t my brother.

  The Southern night is full of stars,

  Great big yellow stars.

                           O, sweet as earth,

                           Dusk dark bodies

                           Give sweet birth

  To little yellow bastard boys.

                 Git on back there in the night,

                 You ain’t white.

>   The bright stars scatter everywhere.

  Pine wood scent in the evening air.

                           A nigger night,

                           A nigger joy.

                 I am your son, white man!

                           A little yellow

                           Bastard boy.

  Southern Mammy Sings

  Miss Gardner’s in her garden.

  Miss Yardman’s in her yard.

  Miss Michaelmas is at de mass

  And I am gettin’ tired!

      Lawd!

  I am gettin’ tired!

  The nations they is fightin’

  And the nations they done fit.

  Sometimes I think that white folks

  Ain’t worth a little bit.

      No, m’am!

  Ain’t worth a little bit.

  Last week they lynched a colored boy.

  They hung him to a tree.

  That colored boy ain’t said a thing

  But we all should be free.

      Yes, m’am!

  We all should be free.

  Not meanin’ to be sassy

  And not meanin’ to be smart—

  But sometimes I think that white folks

  Just ain’t got no heart.

      No, m’am!

  Just ain’t got no heart.