Remembering Names
written by: Jaya Abraham
I am a woman of many names,
Some days when I chase the cats
I call myself ‘sensible’
In the moments of truth
With a drop of light
Emboldening each of my
Eight singular legs,
I am caught in my own web
A contemplative spider, and
I call myself ‘unflappable’
The days I think of Van Gogh,
My left ear itches and bleeds
And sunflowers burn
In my stolid eyes, and
I call myself ‘passionate’.
Still, I keep one name secret
The name that my grandpa
Called me, his beard
Scrapping the pink bow
Of my ears for the first time,
Before I started caging myself
In earthly stories.
In the twilight, as I walk home
It smiles from behind the tree,
Under which he buried,
My milk teeth that he
Diligently plucked
Rotten in bunch of those lies
That I told him.
- Deadwood - August 10, 2023
- Remembering Names - April 21, 2023
