“I like the muted sounds, the shroud of grey, and the silence that comes with fog.” ~ Om Malik

ODE TO GRAY
by Dorianne Laux

Mourning dove. Goose. Catbird. Butcher bird. Heron.
A child’s plush stuffed rabbit. Buckets. Chains.

Silver. Slate. Steel. Thistle. Tin.
Old man. Old woman.
The new screen door.

A squadron of Mirage F-1’s dogfighting
above ground fog. Sprites. Smoke.
“Snapshot gray” circa 1952.

Foxes. Rats. Nails. Wolves. River stones. Whales.
Brains. Newspapers. The backs of dead hands.

The sky over the ocean just before the clouds
let down their rain.

Rain.

The seas just before the clouds
let down their nets of rain.

Angelfish. Hooks. Hummingbird nests.
Teak wood. Seal whiskers. Silos. Railroad ties.

Mushrooms. Dray horses. Sage. Clay. Driftwood.
Crayfish in a stainless steel bowl.

The eyes of a certain girl.

Grain.

~ from Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems (W.W. Norton & Co., 2020)

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What’s the first thing you think of when the color gray is mentioned? Dull, drab, boring, noncommittal? Neither black nor white (yet both), gray hovers in-between, taking a neutral, indifferent stance.

We associate gray with aging and cloudy days. Having worked in many office settings, I’ve seen my share of gray cubicles and file cabinets, copy machines and shredders. Gray is institutional, business-like, a calling card for conformity.

In Europe and North America, only about 1% of those surveyed consider gray their favorite color.

And yet . . .

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