HarlemWhat 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?

LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY!True anyhow no matter how manyLiars use those words.

I went down to the river,I set down on the bank.I tried to think but couldn't,So I jumped in and sank.

Looks like what drives me crazyDon't have no effect on you--But I'm gonna keep on at itTill it drives you crazy, too.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Cheap little rhymesA cheap little tuneAre sometimes as dangerousAs a sliver of the moon.

The sea is a desert of waves,A wilderness of water.

Now I do not understand Why God don't protect a manFrom police brutality.Being poor and black,I've no weapon to strike back--So who but the LordCan protect me?

O, let my land be a land where LibertyIs crowned with no false patriotic wreath,But opportunity is real, & life is free,Equality is in the air we breathe.(There’s never been equality for me,Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)