Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (3 page)

I don’t know what

Po’ weary me can do.

Gypsy says I’d kill my self

If I was you.

Did you ever go down to the river—

Two a.m. midnight by your self?

Sit down by the river

And wonder what you got left?

Did you ever think about your mother?

God bless her, dead and gone!

Did you ever think about your sweetheart

And wish she’d never been born?

Down on the Harlem River:

    Two a.m.

    Midnight!

    By your self!

Lawd, I wish I could die—

But who would miss me if I left?

I was so sick last night I

Didn’t hardly know my mind.

So sick last night I

Didn’t know my mind.

I drunk some bad licker that

Almost made me blind.

Had a dream last night I

Thought I was in hell.

I drempt last night I

Thought I was in hell.

Woke up and looked around me—

Babe, your mouth was open like a well.

I said, Baby! Baby!

Please don’t snore so loud.

Baby! Please!

Please don’t snore so loud.

You jest a little bit o’ woman but you

Sound like a great big crowd.

Where is that sugar, Hammond,

I sent you this morning to buy?

I say, where is that sugar

I sent you this morning to buy?

Coffee without sugar

Makes a good woman cry.

    
I ain’t got no sugar, Hattie
,

    
I gambled your dime away
.

    
Ain’t got no sugar, I

    
Done gambled that dime away
.

    
If yous a wise woman, Hattie
,

    
You ain’t gonna have nothin to say
.

I ain’t no wise woman, Hammond.

I am evil and mad.

Ain’t no sense in a good woman

Bein treated so bad.

    
I don’t treat you bad, Hattie
,

    
Neither does I treat you good
.

    
But I reckon I could treat you

    
Worser if I would
.

Lawd, these things we women

Have to stand!

I wonder is there nowhere a

Do-right man?

Looks like what drives me crazy

Don’t have no effect on you—

But I’m gonna keep on at it

Till it drives you crazy, too.

I don’t mind dying—

But I’d hate to die all alone!

I want a dozen pretty women

To holler, cry, and moan.

I don’t mind dying

But I want my funeral to be fine:

A row of long tall mamas

Fainting, fanning, and crying.

I want a fish-tail hearse

And sixteen fish-tail cars,

A big brass band

And a whole truck load of flowers.

When they let me down,

Down into the clay,

I want the women to holler:

Please don’t take him away!

    
Ow-ooo-oo-o!

Don’t take daddy away!

The dream is a cocktail at Sloppy Joe’s—

(Maybe—nobody knows.)

The dream is the road to Batabano.

(But nobody knows if that is so.)

Perhaps the dream is only her face—

Perhaps it’s a fan of silver lace—

Or maybe the dream’s a Vedado rose—

(Quien sabe?
Who really knows?)

Big Boy came

Carrying a mermaid

On his shoulders

And the mermaid

Had her tail

Curved

Beneath his arm.

Being a fisher boy,

He’d found a fish

To carry—

Half fish,

Half girl

To marry.

The spring is not so beautiful there—

    But dream ships sail away

To where the spring is wondrous rare

    And life is gay.

The spring is not so beautiful there—

    But lads put out to sea

Who carry beauties in their hearts

    And dreams, like me.

The sea is a wilderness of waves,

A desert of water.

We dip and dive,

Rise and roll,

Hide and are hidden

On the sea.

    Day, night,

    Night, day,

The sea is a desert of waves,

A wilderness of water.

Off the coast of Ireland

    As our ship passed by

We saw a line of fishing ships

    Etched against the sky.

Off the coast of England

    As we rode the foam

We saw an Indian merchantman

    Coming home.

Tonight the waves march

In long ranks

Cutting the darkness

With their silver shanks,

Cutting the darkness

And kissing the moon

And beating the land’s

Edge into a swoon.

Heaven is

The place where

Happiness is

Everywhere.

Animals

And birds sing—

As does

Everything.

To each stone,

“How-do-you-do?”

Stone answers back,

“Well! And you?”

In time of silver rain

The earth

Puts forth new life again,

Green grasses grow

And flowers lift their heads,

And over all the plain

The wonder spreads

    Of life,

    Of life,

    Of life!

In time of silver rain

The butterflies

Lift silken wings

To catch a rainbow cry,

And trees put forth

New leaves to sing

In joy beneath the sky

As down the roadway

Passing boys and girls

Go singing, too,

In time of silver rain

    When spring

    And life

    Are new.

I went to look for Joy,

Slim, dancing Joy,

Gay, laughing Joy,

Bright-eyed Joy—

And I found her

Driving the butcher’s cart

In the arms of the butcher boy!

Such company, such company,

As keeps this young nymph, Joy!

How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!

How thin and sharp and ghostly white

Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!

Little snail,

Dreaming you go.

Weather and rose

Is all you know.

Weather and rose

Is all you see,

Drinking

The dewdrop’s

Mystery.

The moon is naked.

The wind has undressed the moon.

The wind has blown all the cloud-garments

Off the body of the moon

And now she’s naked,

Stark naked.

But why don’t you blush,

O shameless moon?

Don’t you know

It isn’t nice to be naked?

Come,

Let us roam the night together

Singing.

I love you.

Across

The Harlem roof-tops

Moon is shining.

Night sky is blue.

Stars are great drops

Of golden dew.

Down the street

A band is playing.

I love you.

Come,

Let us roam the night together

Singing.

I will take your heart.

I will take your soul out of your body

As though I were God.

I will not be satisfied

With the little words you say to me.

I will not be satisfied

With the touch of your hand

Nor the sweet of your lips alone.

I will take your heart for mine.

I will take your soul.

I will be God when it comes to you.

The earth-meaning

Like the sky-meaning

Was fulfilled.

We got up

And went to the river,

Touched silver water,

Laughed and bathed

In the sunshine.

Day

Became a bright ball of light

For us to play with,

Sunset

A yellow curtain,

Night

A velvet screen.

The moon,

Like an old grandmother,

Blessed us with a kiss

And sleep

Took us both in

Laughing.

Songs that break

And scatter

Out of the moon:

Rockets of joy

Dimmed too soon.

This ancient hag

Who sits upon the ground

Selling her scanty wares

Day in, day round,

Has known high wind-swept mountains,

And the sun has made

Her skin so brown.

I am a black Pierrot:

               She did not love me,

               So I crept away into the night

               And the night was black, too.

I am a black Pierrot:

               She did not love me,

               So I wept until the dawn

               Dripped blood over the eastern hills

               And my heart was bleeding, too.

I am a black Pierrot:

               She did not love me,

               So with my once gay-colored soul

               Shrunken like a balloon without air,

               I went forth in the morning

               To seek a new brown love.

I would liken you

To a night without stars

Were it not for your eyes.

I would liken you

To a sleep without dreams

Were it not for your songs.

When Susanna Jones wears red

Her face is like an ancient cameo

Turned brown by the ages.

Come with a blast of trumpets,

    Jesus!

When Susanna Jones wears red

A queen from some time-dead Egyptian night

Walks once again.

Blow trumpets, Jesus!

And the beauty of Susanna Jones in red

Burns in my heart a love-fire sharp like pain.

Sweet silver trumpets,

    Jesus!

Love is a wild wonder

And stars that sing,

Rocks that burst asunder

And mountains that take wing.

John Henry with his hammer

Makes a little spark.

That little spark is love

Dying in the dark.

The dream is vague

And all confused

With dice and women

And jazz and booze.

The dream is vague,

Without a name,

Yet warm and wavering

And sharp as flame.

The loss

Of the dream

Leaves nothing

The same.

Hello, sailor boy,

In from the sea!

Hello, sailor,

Come with me!

Come on drink cognac.

Rather have wine?

Come here, I love you.

Come and be mine.

Lights, sailor boy,

Warm, white lights.

Solid land, kid.

Wild, white nights.

Come on, sailor,

Out o’ the sea.

Let’s go, sweetie!

Come with me.

Natcha, offering love.

For ten shillings offering love.

Offering: A night with me, honey.

A long, sweet night with me.

    Come, drink palm wine.

    Come, drink kisses.

A long, dream night with me.

He carries

His own strength

And his own laughter,

His own today

And his own hereafter—

This strong young sailor

Of the wide seas.

What is money for?

To spend, he says.

And wine?

To drink.

And women?

To love.

And today?

For joy.

And the green sea

For strength,

And the brown land

For laughter.

And nothing hereafter.

How still,

How strangely still

The water is today.

It is not good

For water

To be so still that way.

Gather out of star-dust

    Earth-dust,

    Cloud-dust,

    Storm-dust,

And splinters of hail,

One handful of dream-dust

    Not for sale.

Out of love,

No regrets—

Though the goodness

Be wasted forever.

Out of love,

No regrets—

Though the return

Be never.

She stands

In the quiet darkness,

This troubled woman

Bowed by

Weariness and pain

Like an

Autumn flower

In the frozen rain,

Like a

Wind-blown autumn flower

That never lifts its head

Again.