Twentieth century writer/poet Langston Hughes wrote “Drum” in 1931:

Drum

Bear in mind
That death is a drum
Beating forever
Till the last worms come
To answer its call,
Till the last stars fall,
Until the last atom
Is not atom at all,
Until time is lost
And there is no air
And space itself
Is nothing nowhere,
Death is a drum,
A signal drum,
Calling life
To come!
Come!
Come!


I’ve read of death as the “Great Equalizer”; I’ve also read of death as the ultimate dehumanization. Death beats through our veins not as a drum, but as Hughes twice points out, “Death is a drum” (ll. 2, 13) (italics added). If death is a drum, then what is life? Does the heart beat for death? Is death, as opposed to life, what keeps us alive? These questions presuppose definitions of both “life” and “death," when they need not separate analyses per se; give ‘em thin and thick readings. View 'em as intersecting, signifying entities . . .

palm2palm
my 2 hands meet
1 life
1 death
2 allies in alienation
joined 2 pray
4 what or 4 who?
2 what or 2 whom?
joined conversely in conversation.
life greeting death
like the pain in surrender
they meet 2nite
like peace in the struggle
in the 4m of a thought
a wish
a hope
2gether lifeanddeath
handinhand
4ever

12-15-07
4-1-08