Thursday, July 06, 2006

What happens to a dream deferred?



Dream deferred
by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or does it 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?

The celebrated American poet Langston Hughes' poem is like a documentation of the ripening of social consciousness. It asks: when there is inequity, injustice, how long must the hopes of the disprivileged be smothered?

Photo: Achinto

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