Selected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes Page B

got?
        
You!
    She lifted up her lips
    in the dark:
    The same old spark!
Wonder
    Early blue evening.
    Lights ain’t come on yet.
        
Looky yonder!
        
They come on now!
Easy Boogie
    Down in the bass
    That steady beat
    Walking walking walking
    Like marching feet.
    Down in the bass
    That easy roll,
    Rolling like I like it
    In my soul.
        Riffs, smears, breaks.
    Hey, Lawdy, Mama!
    Do you hear what I said?
    Easy like I rock it
    In my bed!
Movies
    The Roosevelt, Renaissance, Gem, Alhambra:
    Harlem laughing in all the wrong places
        at the crocodile tears
        of crocodile art
        that you know
        in your heart
        is crocodile:
                   (Hollywood
                   laughs at me,
                   black—
                   so I laugh
                   back.)
Tell Me
    Why should it be
my
loneliness,
    Why should it be
my
song,
    Why should it be
my
dream
        deferred
        overlong?
Not a Movie
    Well, they rocked him with road-apples
    because he tried to vote
    and whipped his head with clubs
    and he crawled on his knees to his house
    and he got the midnight train
    and he crossed that Dixie line
    now he’s livin’
    on a 133rd.
    He didn’t stop in Washington
    and he didn’t stop in Baltimore
    neither in Newark on the way.
    Six knots was on his head
    but, thank God, he wasn’t dead!
    And there ain’t no Ku Klux
    on a 133rd.
Neon Signs
    WONDER BAR

    WISHING WELL

    MONTEREY

    MINTON’S
    (ancient altar of Thelonious)

    MANDALAY
    Spots where the booted
    and unbooted play

    SMALL’S

    CASBAH

    SHALIMAR

    Mirror-go-round
where a broken glass
in the early bright
smears re-bop
sound
Numbers
    If I ever hit for a dollar
    gonna salt every dime away
    in the Post Office for a rainy day.
    I ain’t gonna
    play back a cent.
    (Of course, I might
    combinate
a little
    with my rent.)
What? So Soon!
                   I believe my old lady’s
                   pregnant again!
    Fate must have
    some kind of trickeration
    to populate the
    cullud nation!
                             
Comment against Lamp Post
    You call it fate?
                             
Figurette
    De-daddle-dy!
    De-dop!
Motto
    I play it cool
    And dig all jive.
    That’s the reason
    I stay alive.
    My motto,
    As I live and learn,
          is:
    Dig And Be Dug
    In Return
.
Dead in There
    Sometimes
    A night funeral
    Going by
    Carries home
    A cool bop daddy.
    Hearse and flowers
    Guarantee
    He’ll never hype
    Another paddy.
    It’s hard to believe,
    But dead in there,
    He’ll never lay a
    Hype nowhere!
    He’s my ace-boy,
    Gone away.
    Wake up and live!
    He used to say.
    Squares
    Who couldn’t dig him,
    Plant him now—
    Out where it makes
    No diff’ no how.
Situation
    When I rolled three 7’s
    in a row
    I was scared to walk out
    with the dough.
Dancer
    Two or three things in the past
    failed him
    that had not failed people
    of lesser genius.
    In the first place
    he didn’t have much sense.
    He was no good at making love
    and no good at making money.
    So he tapped,
        trucked,
        boogied,
        sanded,
        jittered,
    until he made folks say,
        
Looky yonder
        
at that boy!
        
Hey!
    But being no good at lovin’—
    the girls left him.
    (When you’re no good for dough they go.)
    With no sense, just wonderful feet,
    What could possibly be all-reet?
    Did he get anywhere? No!
    Even a great dancer
    can’t C.P.T.
    a show.
Advice
    Folks, I’m telling you,
    birthing is hard
    and dying is mean—
    so get yourself
    a little loving
    in between.
Green Memory
    A wonderful time—the War:
    when money rolled in
    and blood