Harrison Street Court

Carl Sandburg

I heard a woman’s lips   
Speaking to a companion   
Say these words:   
 
“A woman what hustles   
Never keeps nothin’     
For all her hustlin’.   
Somebody always gets   
What she goes on the street for.   
If it ain’t a pimp   
It’s a bull what gets it.     
I been hustlin’ now   
Till I ain’t much good any more.   
I got nothin’ to show for it.   
Some man got it all,   
Every night’s hustlin’ I ever did."