Poetry Magazine
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 a 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.
Source: Poetry (October 2006).
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This poem originally appeared in the October 2006 issue of Poetry magazine
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Biography
Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of The Maverick Room (Graywolf, 2005) and a chaplet, Song On (WinteRed Press, 2005) and his interview with Bootsy Collins appears in Waxpoetics #18. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Lesley University low-residency Creative Writing Program.
Poems by Thomas Sayers Ellis
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Social Commentaries, History & Politics, Race & Ethnicity
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Poetry Lectures: Dark Room Collective
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