Name Poem

 

My name being written on my birth certificate 

Was one of the most joyous things my mom did.

Unfortunately, 

It lead to red cheeks and

One too many tears.

As a child,

the countless jokes about "Isabelly"

were never funny.

I wasn’t wheezing,

 crying,

or peeing myself from laughter.

 But it always kept coming. 

Peers who were comedic genius' repeated

"Isabelly?" pointing at their own belly,

"Isa-stomach?"

"Why isn't it Isabella? Or Isabelle?"

"Why is it Isabelly?"

Instead of laughing,

My eyebrows crunched together and my lips turned down.

My jar of combined annoyance,

and embarrassment filled and filled,

until it overflowed 

and I gifted myself a nickname.

One basic and accepted without question by my peers.

Then it wasn't so bad.

My Brazilian mother is probably sad

 that I asked for other names,

"Normal" names that my American friends, student teachers, and adults

Wouldn’t question.

The name she picked out for me was my source of embarrassment,

So I changed it because I was just

Too

Embarrassed.