Harlem Shadows/The Tired Worker

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Harlem Shadows (1922)
by Claude McKay
The Tired Worker

First published in The Liberator, Issue No. 18, August, 1919, republished in the Cambridge Magazine 10 Summer (1920)

2756146Harlem Shadows — The Tired Worker1922Claude McKay

THE TIRED WORKER

O whisper, O my soul! The afternoon
Is waning into evening, whisper soft!
Peace, O my rebel heart! for soon the moon
From out its misty veil will swing aloft!
Be patient, weary body; soon the night
Will wrap thee gently in her sable sheet,
And with a leaden sigh thou wilt invite
To rest thy tired hands and aching feet.
The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine;
Come tender sleep, and fold me to thy breast.
But what steals out the gray clouds red like wine?
O dawn! O dreaded dawn! O let me rest
Weary my veins, my brain, my life! Have pity!
No! Once again the harsh, the ugly city.