Sunday, April 15, 2012

100. The Good Times


The Twenties roared in.
It was the Jazz Age.
There was a Renaissance in Harlem.
As Langston Hughes wrote
And Louis Armstrong sang
Dizzy swung.
We sing too, America.
We are darker brothers.
With the Duke and Aaron Douglas
We sing and swing with the rest of you.
A new revolution took place.
Women dressed provocatively.
Went places only for men.
Their hair was short,
Their necklaces long
As they swung and danced to the latest crazes.
Movies recorded life.
Things were good.
They spoke easy
Of alcohol in Prohibition.
It didn’t matter if the Capones of the world
Were shooting up banks.
As long as they kept mixing the smooth bootleg liqueurs
In the cellars behind closed doors.
The good times will always continue.
The businessmen didn’t seem to mind
As they kept it cool with Coolidge.
While people in Harlem played their jazz with trumpets
They played theirs with cash registers.

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