Life’s Little Misdirections 🥀🦋

What’s in … My Name?

Epic Poem Weekend

Never have I loved or hated to hear my name
whether angry
BRIAN!
punches holes in a quiet landscape
chews scenery
or edging toward pleading
in lilting syllables
Bri-ann?
hovers over a compelled head

finger waggled
in extended syllables
gentle, identified my need for compliance
Briiii-aaaann
louder calling
the lost boy off in his woods
BRIII-AAANN!
sometimes melodious
but, when hide and seek tiresome
shorter, more commanding

off this chain
in my trees
sound of my name lifted,
emboldening
Brian!
it seeks a clearing
but can’t top those giants
Brian!!
relocated by angles
from cupped mouth toward other horizons
it lost direction over time
left me behind
in deeper brush,
fading, b r i a…

anyway spoken
Brian pings and echoes
ricochets off stone walls
flat spun over open water
dull,
it dove down

But, I always came home
even if late, dark
love cooing, culled a coy boy to near
BrIaNNnn.
I’d done something good?
felt it in a sweet tooth

then her,
the one
who located a lonesome lad
name lingered on wetted lips
whispered
in dark strung wire

lustful cat eyes spied
warmth of a tender mate
purred breathy
Brrhien
she crept up from behind
tender hand, and arm
slid up back and over shoulder
nuzzled an eager ear

raspy heat
again, more loving
BhrrIann

until
winter-beaded water
on frozen pane lingered
on tongue of a child

haunted
craving my name
with her hunger —

an ordinary name
given to an average boy
dreaming impossible fantasy
before reality
questioned if I’m near…

Brian?
You’re next

a life arrived in his latex hands
warmest arrival
awake inside her dream of a boy
before it broke

one lifetime to live
reverberations
to love or hate salutation
and return one day
unwanted to ground —
not a womb —
with name in stone
silenced, spelled correct
slid beneath silvery surface

echo forever
in your muffled scene —
Brian
in black void
five letters,
three consonants,
two vowels
permanently savored from lips to ears

Brian?
yeah,
that’s my name
you wore it out.

10.22.22

Part of the two syllable set. Sorry to the James and Johns of the world.
My mom called me Brian, chastised anyone who’d shorten it, nickname me otherwise.
No moniker ever stuck.

Add: Lots of other ways to describe the various ways Brian can be emphasized by tone, inflection, clarity, or vocal range…