In contemporary U.S. poetry, many authors have intentionally departed from historically canonical styles (lyrical, metered, and narrative) in favor of more experimental forms and subjects. Danez Smith, as one of these contemporary poets, has a body of work that illustrates a range of authorial decisions that play with more constrained forms of poetry or break away from tradition all together. This context is helpful to understanding “& even the black guy’s profile reads ‘sorry, no black guys,’” both because the poem is an open form prose poem, and because the poem requires an alternative style to functionally address its subject matter.

The prosaic format of “& even the black guy’s profile” is part of its informal appeal to the reader. Smith utilizes appropriate punctuation, especially as commas and periods, to give some semblance of structure to the piece, yet overall, the poem reads as a stream-of-consciousness discussion from the narrator to both the subject and the reader. The poem’s title adds to the effect of the prose style, since the title functions as a leading statement that begins the narration. In many ways, the choice of prose poem as a form for this piece is what centers the piece as contemporary for the reader, which is critical when thinking about the content of the poem.