Category Poets

What a grand time was the war! Oh, my, my!What a grand time was the war! My, my, my!In wartime we had fun,Sorry that old war is done! What a grand time was the war, My, my!Echo: Did Somebody Die?

If you’re great enoughand clever enoughthe government might honor you.But the people will forget—Except on holidays. A movie house in Harlem named after Lincoln,Nothing at all named after John Brown.Black people don’t rememberany better than white. If you’re not alive…

Gimme $25.00and the change.I’m goingwhere the morningand the eveningwon’t bother me.

This year, maybe, do you think I can graduate?I’m already two years late.Dropped out six months when I was seven,a year when I was eleven,then got put back when we come North.To get through high at twenty’s kind of late—But…

So long is in the songand it’s in the way you’re gone but it’s like a foreign language in my mindand maybe was I blind I could not seeand would not knowyou’re gone so long so long.

See that ladyDressed so fine?She ain’t got boogie-woogie On her mind—But if she was to listen I bet she’d hear, Way up in the treble The tingle of a tear. Be-Bach!

God knowsWe have our troubles, too—One trouble is you:you talk too loud,cuss too loud, look too black, don’t get anywhere,and sometimes it seems you don’t even care.The way you send your kids to school stockings down,(not Ethical Culture)the way you…

Good evening, daddy!I know you’ve heardThe boogie-woogie rumbleOf a dream deferredTrilling the trebleAnd twining the bassInto midnight rufflesOf cat-gut lace.

How can you forget me?But you do!You said you was gonna take meUp with you—Now you’ve got your Cadillac,you done forgot that you are black.How can you forget meWhen I’m you? But you do. How can you forget me,fellow, say?How…

Golden girlin a golden gownin a melody nightin Harlem townlad tall and browntall and wisecollege boy smarteyes in eyesthe music wrapsthem both aroundin mellow magicof dancing soundtill they’re the heartof the whole big towngold and brown