A Dream Deferred — Langston Hughes

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?

(for George and Laura Bush – and, today, Leonard Garment —

as one in a continuing series honoring ‘banned’ poets of Feb. 12th)