Amazingly, I actually scored full marks for my Critical Reading Paper, despite the condition I was in (I finished the paper in 20 minutes, and for the remaining 40 minutes I was crying and shedding tears all over my answer script). I still remember Dr. Shameem's bewildered face as I left the hall telling her: "Dr. Shameem, your class is too emotional for me. I can't take it anymore."

Yes... yes, I'm in that bad a condition. For the past 15 years of my schooling history, I've cried in school but never in the middle of the examination, and never because I was emotionally gratified by a poem. But since I did, I've decided to place Langston Hughes' Harlem for your reading pleasure.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

  ¶ 14:26