#Americans #Blacks 1931 October Originally Poetry appeared in issue magazine of the
In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doors are doors of paper Dust of dingy atoms Blows a scratchy sound. Amorphous jack—o’—Lanterns caper
The rent man knocked. He said, Howdy—do? I said, What Can I do for you? He said, You know
Tell all my mourners To mourn in red — Cause there ain’t no sense In my bein’ dead.
You and your whole race. Look down upon the town in which y… And be ashamed. Look down upon white folks And upon yourselves
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
When a man starts out with nothing… When a man starts out with his han… Empty, but clean, When a man starts to build a world… He starts first with himself
I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a cr… Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways,
I am your son, white man! Georgia dusk And the turpentine woods. One of the pillars of the temple f… You are my son!
Being walkers with the dawn and mo… Walkers with the sun and morning, We are not afraid of night, Nor days of gloom, Nor darkness—
Now dreams Are not available To the dreamers, Nor songs To the singers.
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
When the old junk man Death Comes to gather up our bodies And toss them into the sack of obl… I wonder if he will find The corpse of a white multi—millio…
When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold. When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold. Since I come up North de
2 and 2 are 4. 4 and 4 are 8. But what would happen If the last 4 was late? And how would it be
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.