The Reasons For Your Name Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Crooked jewel in the armpit of school-
I slept underneath an overpass
During math-
And thoughts of you came, flooded with
Reason and ennui-
It meant nothing to society-
The tortoise yawned but didn’t know what
To say-
And the rattlesnake danced, and said it
Was her art-
Airplanes flooded across the canal-
Like paper snowflakes-
And I pretended to die for my grandmother,
While telling myself perpetually that
My lips would never again
Have to taste the reasons for your name.