Selected Poems of Langston Hughes Read Online Free Page A

bed—
    And your money, too
.
Maybe
    I asked you, baby,
    If you understood—
    You told me that you didn’t,
    But you thought you would.
Lover’s Return
    My old time daddy
    Came back home last night.
    His face was pale and
    His eyes didn’t look just right.
    He says, “Mary, I’m
    Comin’ home to you—
    So sick and lonesome
    I don’t know what to do.”
        
Oh, men treats women
        
Just like a pair o’ shoes—
        
You kicks ’em round and
        
Does ’em like you choose
.
    I looked at my daddy—
    Lawd! and I wanted to cry.
    He looked so thin—
    Lawd! that I wanted to cry.
    But the devil told me:
        
Damn a lover
        
Come home to die!
Miss Blues’es Child
    If the blues would let me,
    Lord knows I would smile.
    If the blues would let me,
    I would smile, smile, smile.
    Instead of that I’m cryin’—
    I must be Miss Blues’es child.
    You were my moon up in the sky,
    At night my wishing star.
    I love you, oh, I love you so—
    But you have gone so far!
    Now my days are lonely,
    And night-time drives me wild.
    In my heart I’m crying,
    I’m just Miss Blues’es child!
Trumpet Player
    The Negro
    With the trumpet at his lips
    Has dark moons of weariness
    Beneath his eyes
    Where the smoldering memory
    Of slave ships
    Blazed to the crack of whips
    About his thighs.
    The Negro
    With the trumpet at his lips
    Has a head of vibrant hair
    Tamed down,
    Patent-leathered now
    Until it gleams
    Like jet—
    Were jet a crown.
    The music
    From the trumpet at his lips
    Is honey
    Mixed with liquid fire.
    The rhythm
    From the trumpet at his lips
    Is ecstasy
    Distilled from old desire—
    Desire
    That is longing for the moon
    Where the moonlight’s but a spotlight
    In his eyes,
    Desire
    That is longing for the sea
    Where the sea’s a bar-glass
    Sucker size.
    The Negro
    With the trumpet at his lips
    Whose jacket
    Has a
fine
one-button roll,
    Does not know
    Upon what riff the music slips
    Its hypodermic needle
    To his soul—
    But softly
    As the tune comes from his throat
    Trouble
    Mellows to a golden note.
Monroe’s Blues
    Monroe’s fell on evil days—
    His woman and his friend is dead.
    Monroe’s fell on evil days,
    Can’t hardly get his bread.
    Monroe sings a little blues,
    His little blues is sad.
    Monroe sings a little blues—
    My woman and my friend is dead
.
Stony Lonesome
    They done took Cordelia
    Out to stony lonesome ground.
    Done took Cordelia
    To stony lonesome,
    Laid her down.
    They done put Cordelia
    Underneath that
    Grassless mound.
        Ay-Lord!
              Ay-Lord!
                   Ay-Lord!
    She done left po’ Buddy
    To struggle by his self.
    Po’ Buddy Jones,
    Yes, he’s done been left.
    She’s out in stony lonesome,
    Lordy! Sleepin’ by herself.
        Cordelia’s
               In stony
                    Lonesome
                           Ground!
Black Maria
    Must be the Black Maria
    That I see,
    The Black Maria that I see—
    But I hope it
    Ain’t comin’ for me.
    Hear that music playin’ upstairs?
    Aw, my heart is
    Full of cares—
    But that music playin’ upstairs
    Is
for me.
    Babe, did you ever
    See the sun
    Rise at dawnin’ full of fun?
    Says, did you ever see the sun rise
    Full of fun, full of fun?
    Then you know a new day’s
    Done begun.
    Black Maria passin’ by
    Leaves the sunrise in the sky—
    And a new day,
    Yes, a new day’s
    Done begun!

LIFE
IS
FINE
Life Is Fine
    I went down to the river,
    I set down on the bank.
    I tried to think but couldn’t,
    So I jumped in and sank.
    I came up once and hollered!
    I came up twice and cried!
    If that water hadn’t a-been so cold
    I might’ve sunk and died.
        
But it was
        
Cold in that water!
        
It was cold!
    I took the elevator
    Sixteen floors above the ground.
    I thought about my baby
    And