Poems by Langston Hughes

Song for Billie Holiday

What can purge my heart
   Of the song
   And the sadness?
What can purge my heart
   But the song
   Of the sadness?
What can purge my heart
   Of the sadness
   Of the song?

Do not speak of sorrow
With dust in her hair,
Or bits of dust in eyes
A chance wind blows there.
The sorrow that I speak of
Is dusted with despair.

Voice of muted trumpet
Cold brass in warm air.
Bitter television blurred
By sound that shimmers--
   Where?

Langston Hughes