Incident

by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

Lenox Avenue Mural

by Langston Hughes

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?

Let America Be America Again

by Langston Hughes
...I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan.
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak...

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's
ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!...

Paledaddy

Calamity Amelie at Stenhamra

Calamity Amelie at Stenhamra
Originally uploaded by alexander.bergstrom

I came across this shot on Flickr. I absolutely love it. The photographer is Alexander Bergstrom...I'll be watching his work with interest.

Through the Arch

Through the Arch
Originally uploaded by sputnik102

A pinhole image.

Empty

Put on your overcoat and your toe-nail lacquer
And your high-heeled shoes and go get what you're after
And in the grey morning haze, when you're slipping away
You'll be wondering why you're feeling so empty

So go buy yourself some shiny new gadget
To distract you from life and the things that you haven't
And when the batteries die, leaving you puzzled and red
You'll be wondering why you feel so frustrated

Not many people have seen the beast come out of the lake
Yet you're sure that you'll find it and it's not a mistake
You're spending your days in search of tomorrows
Only to find they turn into yesterdays

You know what you want, then you find you don't want it
And when you've got the answer, you don't know the question
And when the Scrabble board's jostled and the words have all changed
You quietly hide the fact that you're weeping