Leave me and my name Just like I am! Furthermore, rub out That MRS., too- I'll have you know I'm Madam to you! Dream Boogie Good morning, daddy! Ain't you heard The boogie-woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Listen closely; You'll hear their feet Beating out and beating out a- You think It's a happy beat? Listen to it closely; Ain't you heard something underneath like a- What did I say? Sure, I'm happy! Take it away! Hey, pop! Re-bop! Mop! Y-e-a-h! Parade Seven ladies and seventeen gentlemen at the Elks Club Lounge planning planning a parade: Grand Marshal in his white suit will lead it. Cadilacs with dignitaries will precede it. And behind will come with band and drum on foot... on foot... on foot... Motorcycle cops, white, will speed it out of sight if they can; Solid black, can't be right. Marching... marching... marching... noon till night... I never knew that many Negroes were on earth, did you? I never knew! PARADE Parade A chance to let PARADE the whole world see PARADE old black me! Children's Rhymes When I was a chile we used to play, One-two-buckle my shoe! and things like that. But now, Lord, listen at them little varmints! By what sends the white kids I ain't sent: I know I can't be President. There is two thousand children in this block, I do believe! What don't bug then white kids sure bugs me; We knows everybody ain't free! Children's Rhymes Some of these young ones us cert'ly bad- One batted a hard ball right through my window and my gold fish et the glass. What's written down for white folks ain't for us a-tall; Liberty And Justice- Huh-For All. Oop-pop-a-da! Skee! Daddle-de-do! Be-bop! Salt'peanuts! De-dop! Sister That little Negro's married and got a kid. Why does he keep on foolin' around Marie? Marie's my sister-not married to me- But why does he keep on foolin' around Marie? Why don't she get a boy-friend I can understand-some decent man? Did it ever occur to you, son, the reason Marie runs around with trash is she wants some cash? Don't decent folks have dough? Sister Unfortunately usually no! Well, anyway, it don't have to be a married man. Did it ever occur to you, boy, that a woman does the best she can? Comment on Stoop So does a man. Preference I likes a woman six or eight and ten years older'n myself. I don't fool with these young girls. Young girl'll say, Daddy, I want so-and-so. I needs this, that, and the other. But a old woman'll say, Honey, what does YOU need? I just drawed my money tonight and it's all your'n That's why I likes a older woman who can appreciate me: When she conversations you it ain't forever, Gimme! Necessity Work? I don't have to work. I don't have to do nothing but eat, drink, stay black, and die. This little old furnished room's so small I can't whip a cat without getting fur in my mouth and my landlady's so old her features us all run together and God knows she sure can overcharge- Which is why I reckon I does have to work after all. Question Said the lady, Can you do what my other man can't do- That is love me, daddy- and feed me, too? Figurine De-dop! Buddy That kid's my buddy, still and yet I don't see him much. He works downtown for Twelve a week. Has to give his mother Ten- she says he can have the other Two to pay his carfare, buy a suit, coat, shoes, anything he wants out of it. Juke Box Love Song I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a crown, Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways, And for your love song tone their rumble down. Take Harlem's heartbeat, Make a drumbeat, Put it on a record, let it whirl, And while we listen to it play, Dance with you till day- Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl. Ultimatum Baby, how come you can't see me when I'm paying your bills each and every week? If you got somebody else, tell me- else I'll cut you off without your rent, I mean without a cent. Warning Daddy, don't let your dog curb you! Croon I don't give a damn For Alabam' Even if it is my home. New Yorkers I was born here, that's no lie, he said, right here beneath God's sky. New Yorkers I wasn't born here, she said, I come-and why? Where I come from folks work hard all their lives until they die and never own no parts of earth nor sky So I come up here. Now what've I got? You! She lifted up her lips in the dark: The same old spark! Wonder Early blue evening. Lights ain't come on yet. Looky yonder! They come on now! Easy Boogie Down in the bass That steady beat Walking walking walking Like marching feet. Movies The Roosevelt, Renaissance, Gem, Alhambra: Harlem Laughing in all the wrong places at the crocodile tears of crocodile art that you know in your heart is crocodile: (Hollywood laughs at me, black-- so I laugh back.) Tell Me Why should it bemyloneliness, Why should it bemysong, Why should it bemydream deferred overlong? Not a Movie Well, they rocked him with road-apples because he tried to vote and whipped his head with clubs and he crawled on his knees to his house and he got the midnight train and he crossed that Dixie line now he's livin' on a 133rd. He didn't stop in Washington and he didn't stop in Baltimore neither in Newark on the way. Six knots was on his head but, thank God, he wasn'r dead! And there ain't no Ku Klux on a 133rd Neon Signs WONDER BAR WISHING WELL MONTEREY MINTON'S (ancient altar of Thelonious) MANDALAY Spots where the booted and unbooted play SMALL'S CASBAH Neon Signs SHALIMAR Mirror-go-round where a broken glass in the early bright smears re-bop sound Numbers If I ever hit for a dollar gonna salt every dime away in the Post Office for a rainy day. I ain't gonna play back a cent. (Of course, I might combinatea little with my rent.) What? So Soon! I believe my old lady's pregnant again! What? So Soon! Fate must have some kind of trickeration to populate the cullud nation! Comment against Lamp Post You call it fate? Figurette De-daddle-dy! De-dop! Motto I play it cool And dig all jive. That's the reason I stay alive. My motto, As I live and learn, is: Dig and Be Dug In Return Dead in There Sometimes A night funeral Going by Carries home A cool bop daddy. Hearse and flowers Guarantee He'll never hype Another paddy. It's hard to believe, But dead in there, He'll never lay a Hype nowhere! He's my ace-boy, Gone away. Wake up and live! He used to say. Squares Who couldn't dig him, Plant him now-- Out where it makes No diff' no how. Situation When I rolled three 7's in a row I was scared to walk out with the dough. Dancer Two or three things in the past failed him that had not failed people of lesser genius. In the first place he didn't have much sense. He was no good at making love and no good at making money. So he tapped, trucked, boogied, sanded, jittered, until he made folks say, Looky yonder at that boy! Hey! But being no good at lovin'-- the girls left him. (When you're no good for dough they go.) With no sense, just wonderful feet, What could possibly be all-reet? Did he get anywhere? No! Even a great dancer can't C.P.T. a show. Advice Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean-- so get yourself a little loving in between. Green Memory A wonderful time--the War: when money rolled in and blood rolled out. But blood was far away from here-- Money was near. Wine-O Setting in the wine-house Soaking up a wine-souse Waiting for tomorrow to come-- Then Setting in the wine-house Soaking up a new souse. Tomorrow... Oh, hum! Tomorrow Tomorrow may be a thousand years off TWO DIMES AND A NICKLE ONLY says this particular cigarette machine Some dawns wait. Mellow Intro the lap of black celebrities white girls fall like pale plums from a tree beyond a high tension wall which makes it more thrilling. Live and Let Live Maybe it ain't right- but the people of the night will give even a snake a break. Gauge Hemp . . . A stick . . A roach . . Straw . . more thrilling. Bar That whiskey will cook the egg say not so Maybe the egg will cook the whiskey. You ought to know! Cafe: 3 A.M. Detectives from the vice squad - with weary sadistic eyes spotting fairies. Degenerates Some folks say But God,Nature or somebody made them that way Police lady or Lesbian over there? Where? Request Gimme $25.00 and the change. I'm going where the morning and the evening won't bother me. Shame on You If you're great enough and clever enough the 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. Shame on You Black people don't remember any better than white If you're not alive and kicking, shame on you! World War II 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? Mystery When a chile gets to be thirteen and ain't seen Christ yet, she needs to set on de moaner's bench night and day. Mystery Jesus, lover of my soul! Hail, Mary, mother of God! Let me to thy bosom fly! Amen! Hallelujah! Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. Sunday morning where the rhythm flows, how old nobody knows -- yet old as mystery, older than creed, basic and wondering and lost as my need. Eli, eli! Te deum! Mahomet! Christ! Father, Bishop, Effendi, Mother Horne. Father Drive, a Rabbi black as black was born a jack-leg preacher, a PH.D. The mystery and the darkness and the song and me. Sliver of Sermon When pimps out of loneliness cry: Great God! Whores in final weariness say: Great God! Oh, God! My God! Great God! Testimonial If I just had a piano, if I just had a organ, if I just had a drum, how I could praise my Lord! But I don't need no piano, neither organ nor drum for to praise my Lord Passing On sunny summer Sunday afternoons in Harlem when the air is one interminable ball game and grandma cannot get her gospel hymns from the Saints of God in Christ on account of the Dodgers on the radio, Passing on sunny Sunday afternoons when the kids look all new and far too clean to stay that way, and Harlem has its washed-and-ironed-and-cleaned-best out, the ones who've crossed the line to live downtown miss you, Harlem of the bitter dream since their dream has come true. Nightmare Boogie I had a dream and I could see a million faces black as me! A nightmare dream: Quicker than light All them faces Turned dead white| Boogie-woogie, Rolling bass, Whirling treble of cat-gut lace. Sunday by the Combination I feel like dancin', baby, till the sun goes down. But I wonder where the sunrise Monday morning's gonna be? I feel like dancin'! Baby, dance with me! Casualty He was a soldier in the army, But he doesn't walk like one. He walks like his soldiering * Days are done. Son! ... Son! Night Funeral in Harlem Night funeral In Harlem: Where did they get Them two fine cars? Insurance man, he did not pay -- His insurance lapsed the other day -- Brothers Kinsmen-you and I, You from Africa, I from the U.S.A. Brother-you and I. Likewise The Jews: Groceries Suits Fruits Watches Diamond rings THE DAILY NEWS Jews sell me things. Yom Kippur, no! Shops all over Harlem close up tight that night. Some folks blame high prices on the Jews. (Some folks blame too much on Jews.) But in Harlem they don't answer back, Just maybe shrug their shoulders, "What's the use?" What's the use in Harlem? What's the use? What's the Harlem? Use in Harlem Likewise Hey! Baba-re-bop! Mop! On a be-bop kick! Sometimes I think Jews have heard the music of a dream deferred. Silver Cheap little rhymes A cheap little tune Are sometimes as dangerous As a sliver of the moon. A cheap little tune To cheap little rhymes Can cut a man's Throat sometimes. Hope He rose up on his dying bed and asked for fish. His wife looked it up in her dream book and played it.