I do not sit and sigh for wealth untold, It never thrusts itself into my schemes; I shrink from all your piles of clanking gold, -- Better my sparkling hoard of golden dreams. A life of limousined and jeweled ease Is but a round of fathomless ennui. Your motor cars, your pearls, your stables -- these Are naught to me. Better a homely flat in Harlem's wilds Than costly living's spurious benefits; Better a simple butter-cake at Childs' Than caviar and stalled ox at the Ritz. Your unearned gold, to me, is shot with flaws; A life of honest toil I'd make my lot, -- Which really makes it very nice, because It's what I've got. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DOWN BY THE CARIB SEA: 1. SUNRISE IN THE TROPICS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON THE RIVALS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON TO J. D. H. (KILLED AT SURREY C. H., OCTOBER, 1866) by SIDNEY LANIER AT THE ZOO IN SPAIN by CLARENCE MAJOR HONEY DRIPPER by CLARENCE MAJOR |