#AmericanWriters
It’s such a Bore Being always Poor.
My name is Johnson— Madam Alberta K. The Madam stands for business. I’m smart that way. I had a
Let’s go see Old Abe Sitting in the marble and the moon… Sitting lonely in the marble and t… Quiet for ten thousand centuries,… Quiet for a million, million years…
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
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,
When I get to be a composer I’m gonna write me some music abou… Daybreak in Alabama And I’m gonna put the purtiest so… Rising out of the ground like a sw…
You and your whole race. Look down upon the town in which y… And be ashamed. Look down upon white folks And upon yourselves
I live on a park bench. You, Park Avenue. Hell of a distance Between us two. I beg a dime for dinner—
I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth And peace its paths adorn I dream a world where all
I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn’t, So I jumped in and sank. I came up once and hollered!
You sicken me with lies, With truthful lies. And with your pious faces. And your wide, out—stretched, mock—welcome, Christian hands.
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…
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…
It was a long time ago. I have almost forgotten my dream. But it was there then, In front of me, Bright like a sun—
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,