#Americans #Blacks
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh,
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the w… flow of human blood in human veins My soul has grown deep like the ri… I bathed in the Euphrates when da…
I am God— Without one friend, Alone in my purity World without end. Below me young lovers
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
It’s such a Bore Being always Poor.
I know I am The Negro Problem Being wined and dined, Answering the usual questions That come to white mind
He glides so swiftly Back into the grass— Gives me the courtesy of road To let me pass, That I am half ashamed
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
I’m all alone in this world, she s… Ain’t got nobody to share my bed, Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand— The truth of the matter’s I ain’t got no man.
I woke up this mornin’ ’Bout half-past three. All the womens in town Was gathered round me. Sweet gals was a-moanin’,
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
Harlem Sent him home in a long box— Too dead To know why:
You sicken me with lies, With truthful lies. And with your pious faces. And your wide, out—stretched, mock—welcome, Christian hands.
My old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mot…
Children, I come back today To tell you a story of the long da… That I had to climb, that I had t… In order that the race might live… Look at my face —dark as the night…
