Night funeral

In Harlem:

​

Where did they get

Them two fine cars?

 

Insurance man, he did not pay—

His insurance lapsed the other day—

Yet they got a satin box

for his head to lay.

 

Night funeral

In Harlem:

 

Who was it sent

That wreath of flowers?

Them flowers came

from that poor boy’s friends—

They’ll want flowers, too,

When they meet their ends.

 

Night funeral

in Harlem:

 

Who preached that

Black boy to his grave?

​

Old preacher man

Preached that boy away—

Charged Five Dollars

His girl friend had to pay.

​

Night funeral

In Harlem:

 

When it was all over

And the lid shut on his head

and the organ had done played

and the last prayers been said

and six pallbearers

Carried him out for dead

And off down Lenox Avenue

That long black hearse done sped,

     The street light

     At his corner

     Shined just like a tear—

That boy that they was mournin’

Was so dear, so dear

To them folks that brought the flowers,

To that girl who paid the preacher man—

It was all their tears that made

     That poor boy’s

     Funeral grand.

 

Night funeral

In Harlem.

​

​

​

​

​

​

-Langston Hughes, (published) 1994