Name

by Dee Allen

My first name:

Torn from the memory of my

Oldest sister’s paternal grandmother.

She once dated a young man

The previous bearer of my name

At age 18.

Something she passed into my mother’s

Ear when Mommy was too unimaginative

Or uncreative to devise a

Male name of her own.

Mommy never wanted me.

Mommy never wanted children.

But she had me

And 3 others.

My middle name:

Same story. Sounds French. Sounds better.

My last name:

Inherited from my maternal grandmother’s

First husband.

North Carolina-born,

New York City-dwelling.

Another Black migrant in the Deep North,

The sought-after urban Shangri-La

That was an African’s ticket out of

The racist Deep South,

The great house that

Slavery, sharecropping, leased convict labour,

Black Codes & segregation built.

Grandma wedded her groom at high school age,
15.

Jumping that proverbial broom was

The building block that started the usage of

My family name.

My shortened name:

Grew from the voices of various cousins,

Older & younger.

That’s what they would call me.

Codified, shortened language

I consider a blessing----no, a gift.

“Blessing” sounds too happy-go-Protestant.

My elders caught on

Later on,

Because referring to me as

“Don”, “Don Juan”, “Donny”

Won’t cut it with me----

So much history behind

Four simple words, four shreds of language

That gave me my identity.

I am

Donnell Lamont Allen,

But I answer better

To Dee.

W: 1.5.08

For Tony Robles & Florence Mayberry.