Langston Hughes, "Ma Lord" (1927)
By Langston Hughes
Ma Lord ain’t no stuck up man.
Ma Lord, he ain’t proud.
When he goes a walkin’
He gives me his hand.
You ma friend, he ‘lowed.
Ma Lord knows what it is to work.
He knows how to pray.
Ma Lord’s life was trouble, too,
Trouble ever day.
Ma Lord ain’t no stuck up man.
He’s a friend o’ mine.
When he went to heaben,
His soul like fire,
He tole me I was gwine.
He said Sho you'll come wid me
An’ be ma friend through eternity.
Published in The Crisis, June 1927