Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams

By what sends
the white kids
I ain’t sent:
I know I can’t
be President.

It’s such a
Bore
Being always
Poor.

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

Good morning, daddy!
Ain’t you heard
The boogie—woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred?
Listen closely:

Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry—go—round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored

Harlem
Sent him home
in a long box—
Too dead
To know why:

I am God—
Without one friend,
Alone in my purity
World without end.
Below me young lovers

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

The gold moth did not love him
So, gorgeous, she flew away.
But the gray moth circled the flam
Until the break of day.
And then, with wings like a dead d