I always thought it just came out of a book
My mother still has it
looks homemade, the cover
crude and orange
African Names
Inside the book it says something like Idris means everlasting or never to die but I don’t think that’s right
My mother Pat, my dad Don, their parents Thelma, James, Ruth and also James
Their siblings
Alicia, Ron, Theresa, Darrin, Reginald, Janet, Joyce, Jay, Val, Alvin, James Jr. - they wanted to break the chain
They were Afro-wearing 1960’s Black power children
Trying to make a statement through their offspring
Wanted us to have names with throat and vowels
In Detroit, they were a minority, our Black church asked,
Why you give that boy that African name? that Muslim name?
There are names in the Good Book-strong Apostle names
Names in the phone book- strong regular names
In the suburbs, I was a minority, my white middle American school asked,
Is it eye-dris
IDI-ris
I’d rice?
Isadore?
Ivan?
Iggy?
Can I just call you I?
Can I call you E?
Can I call you something
other than your name?
Age 11, I ask my mom, can I change my name to something else? Tony,
Mark, Sean-something else?
Being named Idris in North America will arrest people
You must grow patience
What an interesting name
That’s so unusual
Sounds Turkish
Sounds Greek
Are you Muslim?
Where does it come from?
Age 16, two Arab guys come through my register
Get big-eyed when they see my name tag
They’re curious
How the name found its way to a Target in suburban Michigan
They’re disappointed when I tell them about African Names
At age 28, I am in the Middle East, where they pronounce it beautifully not all straightened and flattened
E-Dreece
They have given it a joyful bounce
Idris is a prophet
in the Quran
Earlier- Age 20, new to Chicago, broke, cleaning cigarette butts out of the restaurant urinal for minimum wage, my boss, a giant stereotype with turtleneck, sport coat, big glasses, and thick-as-Ditka’s-mustache accent- unzips at the urinal
(Yep, the one I just cleaned) < THATS THE POEM - Question how does the speaker feel about his name?