Dec 10, 2021
A Hundred Ways To Say Your Name
T. De Rozario
I avoid speaking your name in conversation, throwing it to the air
as if it were nothing more than an assumption of you; it is my last mode of defence.
The last item of clothing to discard before I realise I’m naked in public.
Because they can hear it in my voice. I know.
Even in that one short syllable that means everything and nothing;
your name is as common as you are rare.
As easy as you are not. As simple as love should be, but never is.
But when I’m alone,
I tie my tongue softly round the familiar sound,
as if pronouncing with conviction the phonetics of desire will cause time to pause
just long enough for the earth to hear me naming my loss.