the nametag poem

I picked up one of those little nametags,
You know, the kind with the hello my name is
Blank
And I was thinking man
If you want to get to know me
There’s a heck of a lot I gotta fit in that little
White rectangle.
But here goes.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Joanna lee rutter.
Dumb name, except for the first part.
Lee was the name I took from my mother and rutter was my dad’s and if you look
real hard there’s double letters in each name and
when I was 6 that was cool.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Jojo, that’s my clown name the one that I let my friends call me cause
it makes me seem way more fun and bouncy than I
really am most of the time, makes me sound like a rambunctious
whatever in sugar rehab.
Which is true but we’re not gonna talk about that.
HELLO MY NAME IS
If you listen to me, you’ll call me
Jo, cause that’s
the one I like cause it fits, like
a pair of old soft jeans.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Not joanne.
HELLO MY NAME IS
A lot less than me. If you wanted, I could
take a couple years and try to
fit myself onto a piece of paper for you to read, but
it would take a lot less time for us to
talk.
HELLO MY NAME IS
I listen to Jonas Brothers and Underoath
in the same playlist. I wear hippie clothes, hobo clothes, preppy
clothes, clothes don’t matter much. I don’t go for that
cakey makeup stuff, if I have a pimple
it will shine on my face
gloriously.
I eat and I don’t care if I get fat.
I stopped caring a long time ago and
what do ya know it works. So
take your seventeen magazine miss america and
you know where to shove it.
Don’t hate.
HELLO MY NAME IS
I got the memory of an old lady, so
chances are if you’ve been mean to me
I don’t remember.
Every day a new one, every friend a new one.
I move on and I don’t hold on.
HELLO MY NAME IS
If you squint past the awkward insanity and the silly film
you will see something you might not like.
I love God and I love you, which you might
find hard to handle. Cause I’m one of
those people that ask how are you and I’m interested in
the truth.
HELLO MY NAME IS
I got some pain, sure, and
just like everybody else I shove it
way
way
deep down
and pretend it isn’t there, but sometimes I can’t help but
let it bubble out sometimes.
The thing about pain is even when you give it to God
it keeps sticking to you like a stain, it won’t come off.
But I got joy mostly, cause I have
a lot to be joyful about, especially the pain cause
that pain’s just residue of a change, the ashes.
And I’m glad it’s there to remind me.
HELLO MY NAME IS
I dance for God
even though
I can’t see Him most of the time.
Doesn’t mean I don’t trip.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Well, I got some issues, not like that
dumb stuff from last summer when I thought it would be
cool to be in pain,
I’m over that. I got pride, and
I get away with it.
I judge like I’m the king of the world, but
I’m no better than the rest of you.
HELLO MY NAME IS
I’m like those cell diagrams you see in
your biology textbook.
Transparent but complicated.
The transparent thing scares everybody
away. I got an issue with that. I feel like
I’m at the zoo in a cage with the sign
BEWARE OF THE JO
written in bold across the top.
But it’s cool. I like being different.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Life is one big transition from cradle to grave.
I’m somewhere in the middle and
man, I’m kind of lost but I got hold of
His hand so I
kinda have a
hazy idea of
where we’re headed.
It’s somewhere scary and good.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Attempting poetry, wrapping my
heart in a little paper ball
and sending it through the English language and
hoping it comes out making sense
somewhere along the line.
HELLO MY NAME IS
Just like you. I want people to be able to read my nametag.