Langston Hughes
The Woman Who Lived Up There
[ROSE, spoken]
Sam, what's happened? Is anybody hurt?

[SAM, spoken]
There's been an accident, Rose

[ROSE, spoken]
Who is it, Sam? Is it my mother? Oh, it isn't my mother, is it Sam? Is it?

[SAM, spoken]
Oh Rose, please come away

[ROSE, spoken]
Oh, it is my mother

[VOICES IN THE CROWD, variously]
Who's she?
Her daughter
Poor thing!
Her mother's dead
Who killed her?
Her husband!
About another man!
He killed them both

[ALL]
The man from down the street
And the woman who lived up there
The man from down the street
And the woman who lived up there
[A WOMAN]
Poor thing!

[ALL]
The woman who lived up there

[SAM]
Now love and death have linked their arms together
And gone away into another bourn
Beyond the far-off sky, beyond forever
They have gone and left us here to mourn

[VOICES IN THE CROWD, variously]
They're bringing her down now
Poor thing!
Where is he?
Who?
Her lover?
They left him there!
He's dead!
She loved him!
Poor thing!
She loved him!
He loved her!
Poor thing!
He loved her!
[ALL]
Her husband shot her!
Maybe he loved her too
The woman who lived up there
The woman who lived up there

[ROSE, spoken]
Mother! Oh, mother!

[MRS. MAURRANT, spoken]
Rose

[A VOICE IN THE DISTANCE]
Strawberries! Strawberries! Strawberries!

[SAM]
The summer's bright in warm and golden weather
And all the children in the streets laugh as they run
But love and death have gone away together
To find their morning in the sun

[ALL, variously]
The summer's bright in warm and golden weather
And all the children in the streets laugh as they run
But love and death have gone away together
To find their morning in the sun
[ALL]
In the sun
In the sun