“true name”

by Robert Okaji

I greet you daily without knowing

whether my words stick

or fall through your leaves 

unheard. Sometimes I pause and listen

but a reply evades me,

at least while I stand there.

Do you remember my voice?

Do your acorns share secrets?

Two lifetimes have passed.

Could I be that branch emptied

of birds? That root buckling 

pavement? Who are you

today? What is your color,

your emblem, your true name?

Robert Okaji lives in Indiana. The author of multiple chapbooks, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Book of Matches, The Night Heron Speaks, Threepenny Review, The Tipton Poetry Review, and elsewhere.