Episode 50: "Kids Who Die" by Langston Hughes

GoodPoetry

Read and more GoodPoetry at www.GoodPoetry.org, and listen on Audible, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Anchor.Fm, iHeart, and GooglePlay Music and connect with us @itsGoodPoetry on Facebook, and Twitter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photograph Info: Portrait of American writer and activist Langston Hughes in 1943 (US Library of Congress Archives) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Poem: Kids Who Die This is for the kids who die, Black and white, For kids will die certainly. The old and rich will live on awhile, As Always, Eating blood and gold, Letting kids die. Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi Organizing sharecroppers Kids will die in the streets of Chicago Organizing workers Kids will die in the orange groves of California Telling others to get together Whites and Filipinos, Negroes and Mexicans, All kinds of kids will die Who don’t believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment And a lousy peace.