Voices from the fringes: Crust and sugar over

We started out National Poetry Month with one of the major figures in the Harlem Renaissance, Audre Lorde. Let’s round up with another. Because I just don’t think you can have too much Langston Hughes.

“Harlem” was published in 1951, but it could describe the African American experience today, or 100 or 200 or 300 years before. Eleven lines that pretty much encompass the history of the United States, from 1619 to 2021.

“Harlem”

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?

A dream deferred for 400 years is pretty much a dream denied. We need to get past this.