Langston Hughes, "Mona" (1927)
By Langston Hughes
She lived in sinful happiness
And died in pain,
But she danced in sunshine
And laughed in rain.
She went one summer morning
When flowers spread the plain
But she told my mother
She was coming back again.
The old folks made a coffin
And hid her deep in earth
Seems like she said: My body
Brings new birth.
For sure there grew flowers
And tall young trees
And sturdy weeds and grasses
To sway in the breeze.
And sure she lived in growing things
With no pain
And laughed in sunshine
And danced in rain.
Published in Opportunity, June 1927