Contrasts

Bear in mind
That death is a drum
Beating forever
Till the last worms come
To answer its call,
Till the last stars fall,
Until the last atom
Is no atom at all,
Until time is lost
And there is no air
And space itself
Is nothing nowhere.
Death is a drum,
A signal drum,
Calling all life
To come, come,
Come.

Authorship:

• by (James Mercer) Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967), "Drum", first published <<1953 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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Confirmed with Mein dunklen Hände. Moderne Negerlyrik in Original und Nachdichtung, herausgegeben und übertragen von Eva Hesse und Paridam von dem Knesebeck, München: Nymphenburger Verlag, 1953, page 32.

Researcher for this text: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]