Read and more GoodPoetry at www.GoodPoetry.org, and listen on Audible, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Anchor.Fm, iHeart, and GooglePlay Music and connect with us @itsGoodPoetry on Facebook, and Twitter.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Photograph Info:Portrait of American writer and activist Langston Hughes in 1943 (US Library of Congress Archives)----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Poem:

"Harlem"

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry uplike 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 sagslike a heavy load.

Or does it explode?