I especially can't keep skipping out on poetry slams now that I have my mom's poetry collection at hand. Especially not when The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes is included in said collection. I really love reading through this particular collection, because there are tiny, numbered slips of white paper throughout it, marking specific poems by title. It's my mom's handwriting. My guess is she read some (or all) of these to her students.
This is one of them.
Out of Work
I walked de streets till
De shoes wore off my feet.
I done walked de streets till
De shoes wore off my feet.
Been lookin' for a job
So's that I could eat.
I couldn't find no job
So I went to de WPA.
Couldn't find no job
So I went to de WPA.
WPA man told me:
You got to live here a year and a day.
A year and a day, Lawd,
In this great big lonesome town!
A year and a day in this
Great big lonesome town!
I might starve for a year but
That extra day would get me down.
Did you ever try livin'
On two-bits minus two?
I say did you ever try livin'
On two-bits minus two?
Why don't you try it, folks,
And see what it would do to you?
Langston, I feel ya.
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