Cross
by Langston Hughes
My old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I’m sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well. My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack. I wonder where I’m gonna die, Being neither white nor black?
The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. (University of Missouri Press, 2002)
Another Master of words. Thanks to 'Only Poems Daily' for posting classic work. No fancy spacing, no tricky lines asking the reader to figure it out what it's about. Just truth straight from a poet's heart to a reader of any age.
Classic and still hauntingly relevant today. Sometime a touch of humor adds amazing layers to 'serious' subject matters. Light in rhyme and meter, but serious in what's really at stake. The things contemporary poets can learn from classics like this. . .