Relative

Do we really need
another Liam, Noah, or Mason?
Emma, Charlotte, or Harper?
(I could go on…)

If I have insulted any of you
by calling your handle into question,
it was not my intention.

Chances are, unless
you’re on the lam or in witness protection,
the name you bear
is the byproduct of one particular parent, or both,

though the likelihood of one
superseding the other is damn high;
either mom or dad wore

the other one down, using sentiment
for a dead relative one or more
generations removed, wielding it

the way a bad seed
from far down the family tree
once swung a cumbersome club,

crushing the skull
of a marauding berserker
whose name today more or less
translates as the common Bob.