I hear the halting footsteps on a sidewalk In the bronx when the night lets fall Its veil. I see the shapes of latina girls who pass To bend and barter at desire's call. Ah, little dark skin girls who in slippered feet Go prowling through the night from street to street!   Through the long night until the silver break Of day the little gray feet know no rest; Through the lonely night until the last snow-flake Has dropped from heaven upon the earth's white breast, The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet Are stumbling, thinly shod, from street to street.   Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace, Has pushed the timid little feet of clay, The sacred brown feet of my fallen race! Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet In the boogie down bronx wandering from street to street.