Prayer [2]
by Langston Hughes

Gather up
In the arms of your pity
The sick, the depraved,
The desperate, the tired,
All the scum
Of our weary city.

Gather up
In the arms of your pity.
Gather up
In the arms of your love–
Those who expect
No love from above.

–The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, pp. 138-139