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Always the Name Game

by Catherine Moran (USA)

Somehow we want our simple names we cast

upon a paper or a card to last

beyond that smudge of ink. Some rigid bark

becomes a slate to carry forth our mark

within a living tree. A plot of dead

cement can also hold a single thread

of letters drawn into a sidewalk’s face

to leave some words you can’t erase.

We don’t regret the minutes spent in line

to watch a player take a ball and sign

that roughened surface with his famous name.

Inside a book we proudly flaunt the same

from any author’s pen. Those letters give

a special part of people who will live

in spirit far outside themselves, and leave

a chance for us to dream and to believe.

A Concord couple used her ring to etch

their names into a window pane, a sketch

displaying in a graphic form, the thought

of unity. The Hawthornes’ love was brought

with simple signature to witness there.

And we are awed by glass that frames this pair.

Our briefest chance to reach and touch the wing

of immorality remains the thing

that makes us scrawl our names across the sky

and not look back, or even wonder why.

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