On Carrying This Name

Call me clumsy, like lightning on a summer evening,
or the droop of my eyelids when I read myself to sleep.
Untie the royalty from your tongue.
Remember the static cling in all my skirts,
the ivy growing across this brick wall heart.
Name me, instead, every halfhearted promise,
every armor's chink. Every weakest link.
You can see the weight of a name too noble.

Originally published in Texas's Best Emerging Poets, Z Publishing