What's in a name?

 

What’s in a name?

 for Pepe

Doing my usual round of the park I come across it

the brass plaque with your name etched in it

and I’m thinking about all the people who will wonder

who you were,  and what you did to deserve

this immortalisation on a city park bench

where you will be privy to

the silence of lovers

the reminiscence of elders

the tongue click and chin wag of the motley

the whispers of the lonely

the cycle of seasons from leaf burst

to fruit to husk to ground

The writer will invent a new persona for you

a sea captain perhaps sporting a neckerchief

(you did wear one of those)

with the addition of a wooden leg and a sailor’s pipe

roaring, “Fair winds and following seas” to passers by

and as the years scan by few will remember

that you were a retired black labrador guide dog

who, once relieved of his altruism,

ran riot in the park

Copyright 2023 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved