CROSSING IRELAND: GAINING MY NAME by ANGELA ALAIMO O'DONNELL

The fifth poem in Angela Alaimo O’Donnell’s series. Click “Crossing Ireland” for the opening essay.  More about Angela Alaimo O’Donnell

–

GAINING MY NAME

 

I’ve gained this name by marriage, in case

you’re wondering how a Guinea like me

comes to claim a Celtic ancestry.

 

And those three big boys I birthed are half

enough Irish, making me holy

as any other on this mother-loving shore.

 

I’m an exile, too, and an islander,

the cliff and stone of Sicily as high

and hard as yours, only the skies are bluer

 

and the names are nearer to mine,

rich with vowels sung from a southern sea.

Born Alaimo, I’ll die O’Donnell. 

Both names claim a world for me.

–