Pen Names

Call me in

A shrill high voice

Like mama did

When I was young

Though I’m not sure

Tunafish is as appropriate

On the book cover

As her shouted-from-the-porch

TaunaLen

 

I’ve written under

Several noms de plume

Is that even how

You say it, I don’t know

There’s Tai and Lyne

And Maddie and such

There’s this name and that

And the one from childhood

And sometimes just Anon

 

Even a scribbled Mama

Or Love or Me

Written in dark ink

At the foot of a page

Filled with words

Lined up in neat rows

 

I suppose, I suppose

You can call me anything

Writer, poet, woman

Does it matter?

Yes it does

When someone wants

To pull my book from the shelf

If, if my book makes it there

Should I move from T and L

To C and K, to increase my odds

But then, who would

Recognize me?