Mother and Daughter
by Langston Hughes

Mama, please brush off my coat.
I’m going down the street.

Where’re you going, daughter?

To see my sugar-sweet.

Who is your sugar, honey?
Turn around–I’ll brush behind.

He is that young man, mama,
I can’t get off my mind.

Daughter, once upon a time–
Let me brush the hem–
Your father, yes, he was the one!
I felt like that about him.

But it was a long time ago
He up and went his way.
I hope that wild young son-of-a-gun
Rots in hell today!

Mama, dad couldn’t be still young.

He was young yesterday.
He was young when he–
Turn around!
So I can brush your back, I say!

–The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, pp. 356-7