LANGSTON HUGHES TRIBUTE ISSUE Ben Nardolilli   A GAL AMERICA I have a weary gal, Who on occasion Breathes sweet to me She lets her blood Out for faith, Weary, weary, Early on her voice Seemed like dreams Gold has in mountains. She was once a serf Of the train, Now, the automobile. The country was a home, Done no wrong, It may still be true. Now almost dead, It seems, still plain, But she is not as tall. I fell in a rot of graft, Just like her, America, Is now dark as me. The slim tree rises And grabs new gold In the sunset we watch. Is this when we strike With mighty daring, My darling America?   Ben Nardolilli's work has been published in Houston Literary Review, One Ghana One Voice, The Delmarva Review, Poems Niederngasse, and Perigee Magazine. He was poetry editor for West 10th Magazine at New York University. He lives in Arlington, VA, and blogs at http://mirrorsponge.blogspot.com.   Published in Volume 12, Number 1, Winter 2011.