What’s in a name?

A cold reminder
of mistakes, choking
each time a name
slithers off a tongue.

A stark reminder
that you, owner
of a timeless name,
will never own another

A boundary separating
who you are,
who you aren’t,
who you couldn’t be.

A repetitious word
lost in the crowd,
hay in a haystack,
worthless in totality.

So birth and nurse it
raise it as your own
or bury it deep
where none can find it.

But alive or dead,
don't mistake it,
in sound and silence
a name will always

Be yours.