The Man Without A Name

«Hello, I’m Micah, what is your name Sir?» After loitering unshaken,
my palm blushed
And returned to its pocket. The man responded
«I don’t have a name.»
«Oh, well, what have people called you your whole life?»
«I don’t wish to be bothered.»
And that bothered me. Not his lack of courtesy but his namelessness
Were his parents really that indecisive?
Maybe he has a name and just likes messing with people’s heads
Maybe his stone cold persona is a façade as he snickers on the inside knowing
I’m trying
To figure out how or if to respond
Maybe, he’s a junior, named after the piece of scum that left his mom
Maybe he’d rather be called nothing at all than the name of the man who
abandoned him
Or body slammed him, or touched his private parts
Maybe his name rhymes with some type of private part
Maybe he’s still traumatized by the jingle kids sung on the jungle gym
Maybe he has a lisp and can’t pronounce his own name right so he refuses to try
Maybe he’s been called everything except his name for so long that he forgot
what it was
Maybe he’d be quicker to answer to bastard, or nigga, or hobo, or bum
Maybe he had some regrets and sees everyone as a threat, afraid of what we
would do if
We knew who he was, or what he’s done
But speculation is dangerous, so regardless to the series of events leading to
his present
State, this man claims to be nameless. And he doesn’t wish to be bothered
Nor does he bother to wish
He just sits, hoping to be ignored, or, expecting to
Because before I made an exit, he found me, and apologized for being so rude