Once my name was small,
newborn, awaiting.
It rode upon the shoulders of the sea.
Yesterday my name is but historic fiction
imagination woven with the truth,
reality bejeweled
Today my name is future,
changeling,
autumn butterfly
Tomorrow my name will be meaningless to most
save through some act of kindness I have given
important by its nonchalance
My real name is woven well within me
a pattern both obscure and brilliant,
dependent on the light.
Sandy Perkins was born in Chicago and learned that she loved to write while attending a Southside high school. Throughout her travels, adult life adventures, three children, and an assortment of professions, she has scribbled on napkins and sales receipts. The first thing she did upon moving to North Carolina last fall was to enroll in a writing class.
About My Name—This poem is about who I was, am, and will be; from my brave immigrant ancestors to the memory that remains with others when I am gone.
