Home and Goodnight

Any boys in the three-piece orchestra can go home now,
And the come-on girl fingering a pink paper gardenia and saying,
"My feet is killen me but i'm still dancen"
Can walk two blocks east and have breakfast No.9 at the Greek's
with her best boyfriend
And be back dancing in bed ; all in twenty minutes flat.
But the brown boy who gets an indifferent hand for imitating
Stepin Fetchit,
"Thank yo fo de neckbones suh"
Will have to ride out to 47th and Prairie
The longest ride of all
And who can say certainly whether the music box will ever play
My Heart Belongs to Daddy again ?
Who can be so sure that the big colored dice will be rolling 26
tonight just the same as any other night

excerpt from
Home and Goodnight
Nelson Algren

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Nelson Algren