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Demand

Listen! Dear dream of utter aliveness- Touching my body of utter death- Tell me, O quickly! dream of aliveness, The flaming source of your bright breath. Tell me, O dream of utter aliveness- Knowing so well the wind and the sun- Where is this light Your eyes see forever? And what is the wind You touch when you run? "Demand": First published as the poem; "Request to Genius" in the Poetry Quarterly (Spring 1931) The title was changed for DLD and SP. Taken from "notes to the poems" - page 641 of; "The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes"