Langston Hughes, "Being Old" (1927)
By Langston Hughes
It’s because you are so young,—
You do not understand.
But we are old
As the jungle trees
That bloomed forever;
Old as the forgotten rivers
That flowed into the earth.
Surely we know what you do not know:
Joy of living,
Uselessness of things.
You are too young to understand yet.
Build another skyscraper
Touching the stars.
We sit with our backs against a tree
And watch skyscrapers tumble
And stars forget.
Solomon built a temple
And it must have fallen down.
It isn’t here now.
We know some things, being old,
You do not understand.
Published in The Crisis, October 1927