Question [1], di Langston Hughes

Question [1]

When the old junk man Death

Comes to gather up our bodies

And toss them into the sack of oblivion,

I wonder if he will find

The corpse of a white multi—millionaire

Worth more pennies of eternity,

Than the black torso of

A Negro cotton—picker.

Have you dug the spill Of Sugar Hill? Cast your gims On this sepia thrill: Brown sugar lassie,

Remember The days of bondage— And remembering— Do not stand still. Go to the highest hill

Harlem Sent him home in a long box— Too dead To know why:

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

Gather quickly Out of darkness All the songs you know And throw them at the sun Before they melt

When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold. When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold. Since I come up North de

We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark

'Me an’ ma baby’s Got two mo’ ways, Two mo’ ways to do de Charleston!… Da, da, Da, da, da!

Here I sit With my shoes mismated. Lawdy—mercy! I’s frustrated!

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run?

That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are w… Her bandage hides two festering so… That once perhaps were eyes.

You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!

I look at the world From awakening eyes in a black fac… And this is what I see: This fenced—off narrow space Assigned to me.

I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a cr… Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways,

To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening