Sanjyokta Deshmukh

‘Foreign’ Names

Damaged names are like broken light bulbs.

Each space held between the letters,

Sold to make it fit better in your mouth.

Holding my tongue hostage with a blade that c-catches in my throat.

Making it a cockroach and forcing it to scutter through the grime by your feet.

Understand that when I say ‘we are not from here’ that means my mother and my father 

sailed every bigoted wave to be here.

Kneel down and lower your voice so you can

Hear me now.

This poem is an acrostic of my last name. Historically, a person’s name has been altered and changed by oppressors as a means of erasure of the perceived subordinate’s identity. Fast forward to present day, people of colour are ‘othered’ and expected to make their names more palatable to strangers. I have had people twist and distort my name and even replace it with a ‘less Indian’ one. A person’s name and acknowledgment of their identity is not a gift or a privilege, but a basic and easily delivered right that no person should butcher with so much disregard.

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Written by Sanjyokta 'Yukta' Deshmukh

Sanjyokta 'Yukta' Deshmukh is a Welsh Indian poet currently studying a B.A. in the United Kingdom. She has been previously published both in print as well as online in Eclectica Magazine and The Skinny Poetry Journal. Her work was also shortlisted for the Love the Words 2020 competition in celebration of International Dylan Thomas day. You can follow her here: @sanjdeshk.