Poem 24 - Daybreak in Alabama

[me]

      Daybreak in Alabama - Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

 

      When I get to be a composer
       I'm gonna write me some music about
       Daybreak in Alabama
       And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
5     Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
       And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
       I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
       And the scent of pine needles
       And the smell of red clay after rain
10   And long red necks
       And poppy colored faces
       And big brown arms
       And the field daisy eyes
       Of black and white black white black people
15   And I'm gonna put white hands
       And black hands and brown and yellow hands
       And red clay earth hands in it
       Touching everybody with kind fingers
       And touching each other natural as dew
20   In that dawn of music when I
       Get to be a composer
       And write about daybreak
       In Alabama.