Write My Name

a poem

Photo by ameenfahmy on Unsplash

Listen to a recording of Write My Name:

Write my name 
on my arms and legs
so that when I’m blown to pieces
whoever finds what’s left of me
will know that I was not
some stray animal caught in the blast,
but a human being, and my family
can stop searching and calling.

Write my name
on a gravestone
so that when my body is recovered,
crushed, dismembered, bloody, broken, 
my surviving family may come
to pray and remember my smile,
my voice, my laughter, my hopes,
my dreams.

Write my name
in a book or on a document
so that there will be proof
that I was born and lived,
if only for days or a few years
before I died of starvation or disease, 
before I was killed and trapped
under the rubble.

Write my name
on a concrete wall
so that you will know which side
of good and bad, right and wrong,
the blessed and the damned,
I belong to, and what chances 
I have to live out my life 
in safety, peace and freedom.

No, write my name
in the sand with a stick
so that the wind may blow
or the sea may wash away my name,
for how much does it matter
that I was ever born?

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