after Airea D. Matthews
because my parents liked a filmmaker
or so I’m told pulp fiction means blood
splatter spells marvin’s brain on the rear windshield
means quentin tarantino my parents
would spell Q-U-I-N-T-I-N their own magic
transformation but still fits in mouths
when teachers roll call or for job interviews
but still quentins or quintons or quentens
when Quintin lives right there in the email handle
google calls me quintus a fifth
of whiskey or lazy speakers
who drop the n and t like qui-in
also rhymes with gin and sin
almost end but since the start begged
the universe to turn their tongues
to pronounce in like inn evict the residence
of e in my name google says st. quentin
martyred in gaul body in a marsh
what persecution removes my head
just a misspelling just a micro
aggression Q among friends a nickname a relic of the i
I try to resurrect
urban dictionary says a princess
called my name say big dick says sex
appeal says ultimate sex machine
and intimacy withheld
like the proper spelling in every birthday card
my mother still writes Quintin
until I die
the i dies for e when a white man
writes a bullet for my brain
the e not empty nor the chamber
urban dictionary says empty of emotion
but fun who writes these expectations
to my name I tried to tell you
it’s spelled Q-U-I-N-T-I-N
google asks did you mean Q-U-E-N-T-I-N
I mean how can I voice
these syllables my mouth
a bloody mess
–from Claim Tickets for Stolen People, ©2022 Ohio State University Press
