Dream Deferred by 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?
…………………

My Dream Deferred…

My dream? My dream was shattered. Our dream was obliterated.

This deferred dream sits, perched heavily upon my heart, pressing its weight into me, squeezing out my breath. It bears down, gnashes its teeth, and sets its vision fixedly upon my sanity. It chips away at my exterior, slowly, yet swiftly at the same time.

Who might she have been? We’ll never know. Who might I have been if she had lived? We’ll never know. I am the ruins of a sad soul left longing for the past and haunted by an unwritten book of memories never to be.