I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,

Goin’ down the road, Lawd,
Goin’ down the road.
Down the road, Lawd,
Way, way down the road.
Got to find somebody

Listen!
Dear dream of utter aliveness—
Touching my body of utter death—
Tell me, O quickly! dream of aliv
The flaming source of your bright

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it’s that simple?

In places like
Selma, Alabama,
Kids say,
In places like
Chicago and New York...

I sat there singing her
Songs in the dark.
She said;
'I do not understand
The words’.

We passed their graves:
The dead men there,
Winners or losers,
Did not care.
In the dark

Tell all my mourners
To mourn in red —
Cause there ain’t no sense
In my bein’ dead.

That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are w
Her bandage hides two festering so
That once perhaps were eyes.

Landlord, landlord,
My roof has sprung a leak.
Don’t you 'member I told you abou
Way last week?
Landlord, landlord,