Poetry

Continuing National Poetry Month, I present my favorite poet, Langston Hughes. I have a huge interest in race relations in the United States, because those relations have had such a tremendous impact on our history as a nation. Hughes’ poetry and other writings were explicitly about race relations in the years following the first World War, but much of it still has relevance today. I believe the following poem, Children’s Rhymes, is one such work.

By what sends
the white kids
I ain’t sent:
I know I can’t
be President.

What don’t bug
them white kids
sure bugs me:
We know everybody
ain’t free.

Lies written down
for white folks
ain’t for us a-tall:
Liberty And Justice–
Huh!–For All?