African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Langston Hughes, "The Last Feast of Belshazzar" (1923)

The jeweled entrails of pomegranates bled on the marble floor.
The jewel-heart of a virgin broke at the golden door.
The laughter of a drunken lord hid the sob of a silken whore.

Mene,
Wrote a strange hand,
Mene Tekel Upharsin,—
And Death stood at the door.


Published in The Crisis, August 1923

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