Love of Langston

the story goes
that Langston
while working as busboy
set three poems
beside the plate of a famous
poet of the time.
vachel Lindsay.
and his life changed after
that.
he was known as the busboy
poet.
the color of his skin kept
him out of
movie theaters, the boy scouts
and the y.m.c.a.
but not out of books, which
he devoured.
treasuring his copy of
the leaves of grass.
his poems were simple,
not from lack of intellect
but by choice,
to reach the masses.
forty books
written in his life
to express his joy, his
distress
at the world he was born
into. I have a copy
of Harlem, right here on
my desk.
this busboy poet, a laureate
no less.