Is That Your Real Name (Final Version) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

is that the name you go by or is that your real name?
some people get asked that a lot
many people who have nicknames
or maybe this is a question I remember
that has now gone out of style
some people get laughed at for their names
especially on loud raucous classroom
afternoons
some people despite their outwardly beautiful names
are still made fun of
there is a certain negative creativity in the world to
account for that or on the playground
so, that they will require of you your soul
pronouncing it into blizzards
but what I am drawn to now is the feeling of that phrase
your real name
in whose language
on what spectrum
for what reason do you need to know my real name
my name is a stone I will drop down the well of antiquity
rather than to disclose one syllable of it
to the scorners
my real name will echo location radar beyond the beyond
in a wind flecked with reticent stars on the outer crusts of
jeweled Space
or splash invisibly over the realm the thin rim of gold on
the
coffee cup, demitasse or break like a glass wave on a glass
shore forevermore
and be stirred into the cream
in a dream where no one drinks it but me
my name will melt like tin and splash down the Tin Woodman's
chin past emerald safaris;
my real name will whirl up in a pink paper airplane
circling the demesnes of God
where perhaps on a heart shaped day in Eternity
it will wind up on his bulletin board on display.
a wisp in a frame of Pearl.

mary angela douglas 9 february 2022; 21 march 2023