Okay!

By Paul Hostovsky

I was an English major okay
so when you say okay and that's all you say
in reply to my much longer
email about you and me and what happened
and what happens and what will happen
I don't know how to read your okay okay
I mean I'm scanning the y and the a for some kind of
meaning lurking in the choice to spell okay
okay instead of ok or o.k.
or OK or O.K. or Ok as though
you were spelling something out for me here
and then there's that exclamation point
which follows your okay and probably doesn't
merit the kind of assiduous
exegesis I've already performed on it in my head
analyzing it for voice and tone and register
and volume and pitch and number
because because because
because of the wonderful things we've done
together in all kinds of weather and places and positions
and durations and voices and volumes
and although I know that isn't the point
of your exclamation point it's all I have to work with here
outside of your okay
and everything your okay isn't saying
which is what it's leaving out
which I know from having read one or two
hundred thousand poems in my lifetime
is just as important as what's left in
but what I want to know is
okay where does that leave us?

While driving to work, Paul Hostovsky likes to read Braille with his right hand while steering the car with his left.