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Song for Billie Holiday

Song for Billie Holiday What can purge my heart Of the song And the sadness? What can purge my heart But the song Of the sadness? What can purge my heart Of the sadness Of the song? Do not speak of sorrow With dust in her hair, Or bits of dust in eyes A chance wind blows there. The sorrow that I speak of Is dusted with despair. Voice of muted trumpet, Cold brass in warm air. Bitter television blurred By sound that shimmers-- Where? Langston Hughes Reprinted by permission of David Higham from Selected Poems (Serpent’s Tail 2020) © Langston Hughes 1959

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