A wog is a word for a thing
a polliwog, a golliwog
a black-face doll –
a sailor who has not
crossed the equator –
with a halo of hair and
a gash of lips, no hips, frozen
in time, a white minstrel
thing, a caricature –
a word from the past
not used anymore.
A golliwog is a doll,
a story, created by Florence K Up-
ton and illustrated –
a face on jam and Black Jack
confection –
a children’s toy,
a ploy of affectation, not
affection –
a germ, bug, infection
or illness of the gut –
something you don’t
want to have or be, ‘pick
her or him, not me, not me.’
A wog is not Working
on Government Service,
a wog is not a Western
Oriental Gentleman,
worthy, wily or wonderful
a WOG is not an acronym.
A wog is a word for a thing.
A wog is a scattermouch,
it is Indian, Arab, Asian,
a wog is a word used for post-World War II
Southern-European immigration.
A wog is not out of work,
a wog is not a boy. Greeks,
Italians, Croatians and
Portuguese use the word
with ease that was once
a racial slur. You get a rise
out of not knowing
where you come from
anymore. A wog was my baba
and deda, my brothers,
father, mother and sister.
A wog belongs to the Empire,
and an Empire likes a wog
that is cheap and for hire,
‘the wogs begin at Calais’ –
and they become a parle,
refugees, fresh off the boat
people, queue jumpers, r/evolving,
speak Inglese, speak illegalese –
a wog becomes a sailor
who has crossed
the equator.
Author’s note: The definitions of ‘wog’ in ‘Definition: wog (n); a thing’ are referenced from David Wilton’s Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends (Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 95–96).
deda (Croatian) = grandfather
baba (Croatian) = grandmother
