For You - A Spoken Word Poem by Hil Gold

Names     ©2014 Hil Gold

I keep names in my back pocket.

I will not need them for years, but like a

child would collect buttons, I

collect possibilities.

The names are old fashioned, sweet

and clean. They aren’t heard too often anymore

but when they’re recited, I can’t help but smile.

They roll off the tongue like marbles on ice,

and when I say them I feel like I am home.

Charlotte.

Rose.

Eloise.

My daughter,

When they hear your name

I want them to feel warm under

that bone in the middle of their chest.

Your first name will be for you. 

To twist and turn, to squeeze and expand.

Your second, for teachers spell wrong.

You will have to correct them.

You will create your own story

and explain it in your own words.

You will spell it and say it over and over

again.

Your last name will ground you.

Will remind you of small villages

where everyone knows each other.

Of the mind tricks, subtle lies and all the steel-toed kicks

to my shins it took for you to even have a name.

It will tell the story of grandma’s forced inked forearm,

of number games enemy soldiers played and

quick dodging bullets,

of running away on dirt roads on

bare calloused feet, under barbed wires and

through trees of unknown ends.

She survived so you could live.

Women in our family have metal pipes for bones,

So dye your hair green

or get a million and two piercings.

Let your name give you the strength to

stand out.

It took me 6 years to figure out that I

should not try to fit in with,

fake acrylics and artificial comments

spilling from the mouths of privileged freshman.

I don’t know how, but something led me straight

to those who take me for who I am.

So know that I will be there for you.

There are reasons I keep certain names in my back pocket

And you, are one.