Is That Your Real Name

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 coloured non 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