Featured Fifty Poetry: My Name

Rene Pinet is a 64-year-old retired meteorologist-turned-writer living in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Most of his work (poetry and narrative) is in Spanish, but having lived in Seattle about five years while getting his graduate work, he occasionally dabbles in English (or Spanglish, even).

My Name

My name means "born again."
Like the cats, who do it nine times;
Or like zombies, who almost do it.
It was handed to me by my father,
As were the dark eyes,
A taste for silence and solitude,
And a clumsiness at hugging.
My name is like a banner,
Funny when seen over other armies,
As if they have not earned it.
My name is, after all,
Not mine at all.
But I would not change it
For all the names I know.
How could I ever end myself
Without it?