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