“Ways to nurture a name” by Yohani Mendis
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Ways to nurture a name” by Yohani Mendis.
“Ways to nurture a name”
By Yohani Mendis
For all the years you butchered my name
Each letter dragged in Anglicized mud
the Sanskrit term for
blessing
felt like a dirty word
I had to scour from memory.
I tried to expunge the bad taste you left
in my mouth when
you blamed
my name
for not going easy on the tongue.
like chewing the mango’s sugar off its stone
you pick at culture to cater to your palate
mine was never made for your consumption.
Still
I will teach you to say my name
until
it sticks
like honey to your lip
Copyright © Yohani Mendis
Previously published in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2021 (Biblioasis). First published in Poetry Pause on October 2, 2020.
Yohani Mendis is an emerging writer. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Brick, The Fiddlehead, and elsewhere. She lives in Toronto.
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