Mother Millennia - choosing your own name

choosing your
own name

from
Peeling the moon:
a suite of poems

by
Judith Kerman

Self
determined.
This is the price of several pounds of coffee.
It is your name, your father's name,
your mother's husband's name,
the name of grand and great-grand fathers
stretching back through history.
This is a gold bangle on your left wrist,
a leather cuff on your ankle.
If you wish to determine
your own name
you must fast in the hills for three days
you must collect 6 drops of menstrual blood in a cup
you must type 85 words per minute
you must run the Boston marathon.
Ask the spirit of your mother's
mother's mother to advise you
but never ask permission of anyone
or you will lose it.
If you ask your name
to declare itself
it will answer you at midnight
when you hold your husband's head
in your lap
it will answer you at 4 P.M.
and make you drop the shirt you are ironing
it will infiltrate your briefcase
appearing at the top of a memo from your boss.
Choose your name.
Choose your destiny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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