Good morning, daddy! I was born here, he said, watched Harlem grow until colored folks spread from river to river across the middle of Manhattan out of Penn Station dark tenth of a nation, planes from Puerto Rico, and holds of boats, chico, up from Cuba Haiti Jamaica, in buses marked New York from Georgia Florida Louisiana to Harlem Brooklyn the Bronx but most of all to Harlem dusky sash across Manhattan I've seen them come dark wondering wide-eyed dreaming out of Penn Station-- but the trains are late. The gates open-- Yet there're bars at each gate. What happens to a dream deferred? Daddy, ain't you heard? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE POET'S BRIDAL DAY SONG by ALLAN CUNNINGHAM THE WATER MILL by SARAH DOUDNEY HOLYHEAD, SEPTEMBER 25, 1727 by JONATHAN SWIFT AT A COWBOY DANCE by JAMES BARTON ADAMS ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 4. TO THE HON. CHARLES TOWNSHEND, IN THE COUNTRY by MARK AKENSIDE WHAT THE ENGINE SAYS by ALEXANDER ANDERSON THE KNIGHTS: THE POET AND HIS RIVALS by ARISTOPHANES |