Langston Hughes, "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)

Source

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?

R

Source

Half past breaking dawn

Sun peeks out as if to say,

“Hello, my friend.”

Windows shut,

Blinds drawn.

Gone doubtin’ ourselves again.

Neden, dost arkadasim, neden?

A lifetime in 23 seasons reduced.

Neden, dost arkadasim, neden?

My, how you built us up!

Built—

            --to break!

When reality’s fragile sands

            Failed

To turn us into the image in your mind.

Pourquoi, mon amie, pourquoi?

A lifetime, to six seasons reduced.

Pourquoi, mon amie, pourquoi?

Entropy

In between yesterday and tomorrow--      
today, mo chroi--
With those jagged, vertical lines
You made your choice
Without struggle, irreversible, final.
Tell me, beloved:
Was it nothingness you sought,
Or elusive relief, perhaps
Unreachable it seemed?

Merciful God, they claim, deems you a sinner.
Prodigal son, Bedouin without a tribe.
Locked out of Valhalla
Shackled now to Hades eternal. 

'Coward, you are,' Oh how mere mortals judge,
'Brought shame and dishonour
  to your God
     your country
        your family
           your friends.'
Their forked tongues seethe with righteous indignation,
     eyes of steel

          lips in perpetual sneer. 



But you fought, beloved-- 
Oh how you fought
     and raged
          and thrashed
against the quicksand
     in the darkness
          and in silence!
They never knew,
     and I...

          I saw much too late. 

In between today and tomorrow--
forever, mo chroi--
I shall carry this,
    peeking out behind the clouds: 
      beloved, yes--I meant to say. 

Deliverance from the Robed Boogeyman

Blessed Father, oh how you have sinned! 

Has it been 5, 15, or 30 years since

the dates infallible Joe Ratzinger omitted? 

This madness, this crime committed:

   Names crossed out

     Faces obscured

        Defilement in Shadows,

     Little boys' screams silenced,

   Truth be damned, 
       MURDERED.

Predators'---yours!--memorized verses

   uttered behind polished mahogany screens,

Robotic rituals--cleansing, you say--,

   Insincere atonement,

     A mockery of (y)our God's Grace.

This sickness, this monster

Boston-Belfast-Berlin Migration. 

 Boogeyman in Sacred Robes,
           May God deliver us from your evil

Sark

You carry the weight 

   of numbers unknown

The cries of those who fell

   so long ago

Across the desert

   nameless and faceless.

This moment, these memories

   Slither past the borders

Generation

   upon

      generation,

It lives.

It  grows.

Father to son,

   son to daughter.

And like

   those who came before

You

   cannot

     forget. 

'The other must pay,'

   you say,

'95 years later the blood

   is still a splendid red.'

Eternal feud revisited

   paid

      and

         played

between -yan and -oğlu unborn,

     innocent brothers

      whose only sin

          was to come into being

into the borderlands

of political hate.