Langston Hughes, "African Dancer in Paris" (1928)
In some palm-covered street
And, more than any other thing
To her, his lips are sweet.
She dances now in rue Pigalle
With brown legs bare and slim,—
And every kiss of foreign mouths
Brings thoughts of him.
Yet when the lights in cabarets
Are cynical and cold,
She trades a cheaply perfumed love
For coins of gold.
Published in Carolina Magazine, May 1928