Mulatto by Langston Hughes

Mulatto by Langston Hughes   

(audio)

 circa, 1930

MULATTO  (1927) 

by Langston Hughes

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.

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. Traveling to Europe and Africa, lived in Mexico, Paris, Italy and the Soviet Union. He was famously remembered for living in Harlem, NY.  He was an author of: journalism, books for children, humor, librettos, lyrics, drama, radio scripts and, and poetry. A deep concern for Negro life pervaded him and was reflected in his work and the many honors awarded him. His mixed-race experience seeps through and is revealed in his work, yet is was and often still is so today, as black.   While creating the volume of Black Misery, he died in 1967.

 Hughes, circa 1960