Chosen Name

Soph Bonde/Argot Magazine

[Image Description: Two Balloons in macro focus are at the right as confetti drifts down into shadow in front of them]

it's got a style,
it's got a swing,
it's snazzier —
jazzier —
my kind of thing

it's clever,
it's pointed,
it pops off the tongue,
says hey, sit up straight folks —
lend your ears to this one

but the best people have spines a little bit bent —
and haven't sat straight in years.
they don’t ask where the old name went —
They’ve already shed my own tears

we’re on earth to be joyful
to be loving and kind
when your lips shape my name
I hear me, thus defined.

because it’s mine, do you hear me?
it’s mine, no proof required —
cuz the me who cared what folks thought
has abruptly retired

I’m here to try harder
To speak and to give
Our names are but breath —
But it’s by breath that we live

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Jaz Twersky is is a queer writer whose work has been previously published in the anthology Covenant of Generations, the UC San Diego newspapers The Triton and The MQ, the San Diego outlet inewsource, and on the love letter podcast. They currently live Brooklyn, where they're working on education justice at Repair the World.