Harlem is a poem by Langston Hughes. In this poem he talks about his dream of having Harlem be a nice city where good things happen. He talks about what happens when you have a dream that may not come true. He says "Does is dry up like a raisin in the sun?" what he means by that is will Harlem just be there and not have any significance to it and just dry up. "Does it stink like rotten meat?" he says this to ask if Harlem will be a city that people only remember for how bad of a city it isinstead of the good. Then his last line is "Or does it explode?" meaning will his dream just be completely shattered and will Harlem grow into a city that noone wants to be in and noone remembers for any of the right reasons that a city is remembered for.