The Name You Call Us By

The name you call us by
is not the name we call ourselves.

So Apache becomes for us Nde,
a name you can barely pronounce.

The Zuni called us
Apache, “the enemy,”

and you chose
to do the same.

A small part of us
became all we were to you,

as if calling out a part
conjured the whole,

as if naming a peak
described the range.

Pike’s Peak for the Rockies,
Mount Rushmore for the Black Hills —

and of course none of those
are real names, either.

About Tony Brown

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A poet with a history in slam, lots of publications; my personal poetry and a little bit of daily life and opinions. Read the page called "About..." for the details. View all posts by Tony Brown

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