Harlem [2]

What happens to the dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a rasin 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?

Flotsam

On the shoals of Nowhere
Cast up--my boat,
Bow all broken,
No longer afloat.

On the shoals of Nowhere,
Wasted--my song--
Yet taken by the sea wind
And blown along.