“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.