My Ode to Harlem

Pride in the past of the Mecca

My Ode to Harlem

 

Drop me off in Harlem. Not Reagan's Harlem but good ole Harlem. Uptown where the Apollo is. Duke Ellington's Harlem is where I wanna live.

 

I know they all had a problem but back then there was a sense of something special and what we did to solve'em.

 

The Harlem of Langston Hughes when he wrote about a fella name Simple and where Ella sang her tunes.

 

The good days before the damage that was done before today. Take me back. I wanna go. My tuxedo and top hat is ready. To that Sweet Hill we should go.

 

When we thrived Love and it was the Mecca to go. Our culture was there. Not where Black Bird rules ruled and Negros lived in fear.

 

So you can keep your Dixie. We don't need your Dixie. Our Sugar is sweet. It was before boarded up apartment buildings and another white powder that rocked the streets. Based off what?

 In a land downtown that showed what we had and had not. Take me back to the Glory days that many probably forgot.