Harlem Shadows

I hear the halting footsteps of a lass     In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass     To bend and barter at desire's call. Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet Go prowling through the night from street to street! Through the long night until the silver break     Of day the little gray feet know no rest; Through the lone night until the last snow-flake     Has dropped from heaven upon the earth's white breast, The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street. Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way     Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace, Has pushed the timid little feet of clay,     The sacred brown feet of my fallen race! Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet In Harlem wandering from street to street.