Aunt Sue's Stories by Langston Hughes — Read

Aunt Sue has a head full of stories.

Aunt Sue has a whole heart full of stories.

Summer nights on the front porch / Aunt Sue cuddles a brown-faced child to her bosom / And tells him stories.

Black slaves / Working in the hot sun, / And black slaves / Walking in the dewy night, / And black slaves / Singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river / Mingle themselves softly / In the flow of old Aunt Sue's voice, / Mingle themselves softly / In the dark shadows that cross and recross / Aunt Sue's stories.

And the dark-faced child, listening, / Knows that Aunt Sue's stories are real stories.

He knows that Aunt Sue / Never got her stories out of any book at all, / But that they came / Right out of her own life.

And the dark-faced child is quiet / Of a summer night / Listening to Aunt Sue's stories.