Or

I'm on call for a week, starting tonight at 5pm. Hope it is calm and quiet. I know there is a bili baby to see in the am, but that's about all so far.

Loved this poem in the new issue of Poetry. What fun with just two letters. Very OR-iginal! (Sorry, the formatting is a little off. The shorter two-line stanzas are indented.)



Or,

Or Oreo, or
worse. Or ordinary.
Or your choice
of category

or
Color

or any color
other than Colored
or Colored Only.
Or “Of Color”

or
Other

Or theory or discourse
or oral territory.
Oregon or Georgia
or Florida Zora

or
Opportunity

or born poor
or Corporate. Or Moor.
Or a Noir Orpheus
or Senghor

or
Diaspora

or horrendous
and tore-up journey.
Or performance. Or allegory’s armor
of ignorant comfort.

or
Worship

or reform or a sore chorus.
Or Electoral Corruption
or important ports
of Yoruba or worry

or
Neighbor

or fear of . . .
of terror or border.
Or all organized
minorities.

— Thomas Sayers Ellis, Poetry, October 2006