Dream Variations

brought to mind’s awareness reading John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me where life is transformed through a material transformation of the Self. the facts of be-ing which govern the contingencies of embodied presence in this passing life.

Dream Variations

To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me-
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening…
A tall, slim tree…
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

— Langston Hughes