Names and Nicknames

Out of affection
they’d cut my name short,
that’s how I learned my first signs of intimacy –
by getting a nickname
 
At thirty-five
the various pairs of vowels and consonants
my name is surrounded by
are beyond my mother’s imagination
who decided to give me
the name of the student
she was fond of
who always came in tidy uniform
and was fluent in English
 
I never met that girl
she is lost somewhere in this world
she could be anyone, in any city
any among the sundry faces
I see and forget
 
My mother would be alarmed
when somebody gave me a new name
she feared I was falling in love
or in a friendship
which would only bring me misery
she’d wake me up in the morning
stressing all the syllables of my full name
with all my other names ringing in me
I’d laugh her alarm away
 
The first signs of losing a lover or a friend
are also the same
they disclaim the name they gave me
and I am left to pronounce my name in the way 
one reads the names
of the unclaimed survivors of an earthquake
waiting for someone to take them home

Names and Nicknames

Names and Nicknames