My Name

I'm looking for my name.
Have you seen it?

It cannot be
a sound invented
by someone else
before I could speak
because your name is invented 

only by you.

Nor can it be
a sound copied
from man to child
across so many centuries
nobody really knows
where it came from
because I know
where my name comes from.

It comes from
the deepest part of me,
deep and dark and wet,
where muscles pound
and light is myth.

It comes from
the tenderest part of me,
which I'm afraid to touch
in case I feel
the flickering of eyelashes
magnified by a million.

It comes from
the youngest part of me,
as young as the unborn future,
so young
it is coming into being
forever.

So I know where my name comes from,
but that doesn't help me know
where it is.

It's in an unnamed place
as layered as road
as hidden as hurt
as alive as magma.

And when I find it,
I will carry it to the Sun
in the East,
hold it up
in my two hands
and blow.

I Prefer Not To

My last eleven e-mails
were from a string of corps
requesting valuation of
how they do their work.

At first it was amusing

to dish out random scores
but now they've got me wondering,
"What is this all for?"

First of all I paid them.
I assumed that was enough,
but now they've come abegging
for written notes of love.

I fear they won't be happy
until I've scored them all,
but how'd it come to me
to fill the vacuum in their souls?

As I look upon the world
and fail to place the blame,
I return to one solution
to which I'm hooked like crack cocaine.

I will write a poem,
a lovely little poem,
and fill it with my 'wisdom',
and hope it keeps me going.

But this one really means it,
so you'd better pay attention.
I can't be held responsible
for your personal redemption.

Listen up and listen good
'cos I will not say this twice.
The thing you did or stuff you sent,
basically sufficed.

It must have been acceptable,
arriving timely and intact.
If your product had been terrible,
I would've sent it back.

As to excellence or greatness,

thereof I cannot speak.
It seems to be a lofty goal
unless, of course, you've peaked.

Yet I guess your need is shallower
than I have yet supposed.
What you really want is evidence
that you've outperformed your foes.

But I will not play enabler
to your increased market share
so kindly gather up your e-mails,
and GET THE F*CK OUT OF HERE!