Harlem

by Langston Hughes
  • 1951
Image: Portrait of Langston Hughes. Parks, Gordon. (1943) Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017858893/

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What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

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