I always thought it just came out of a book My mother still has it
looks homemade, the cover
crude and orange

African Names

Inside the book it says something like Idris means everlasting or never to die but I don’t think that’s right

My mother Pat, my dad Don, their parents Thelma, James, Ruth and also James

Their siblings
Alicia, Ron, Theresa, Darrin, Reginald, Janet, Joyce, Jay, Val, Alvin, James Jr. - they wanted to break the chain

They were Afro-wearing 1960’s Black power children
Trying to make a statement through their offspring
Wanted us to have names with throat and vowels

In Detroit, they were a minority, our Black church asked,

Why you give that boy that African name? that Muslim name?

There are names in the Good Book-strong Apostle names

Names in the phone book- strong regular names

In the suburbs, I was a minority, my white middle American school asked,
Is it eye-dris
IDI-ris
I’d rice?
Isadore?
Ivan?
Iggy?
Can I just call you I?
Can I call you E?
Can I call you something
other than your name?
Age 11, I ask my mom, can I change my name to something else? Tony,
Mark, Sean-something else?

Being named Idris in North America will arrest people

You must grow patience

What an interesting name
That’s so unusual

Sounds Turkish
Sounds Greek
Are you Muslim?

Where does it come from?

Age 16, two Arab guys come through my register
Get big-eyed when they see my name tag

They’re curious
How the name found its way to a Target in suburban Michigan

They’re disappointed when I tell them about African Names

At age 28, I am in the Middle East, where they pronounce it beautifully not all straightened and flattened
E-Dreece

They have given it a joyful bounce

Idris is a prophet
in the Quran

Earlier- Age 20, new to Chicago, broke, cleaning cigarette butts out of the restaurant urinal for minimum wage, my boss, a giant stereotype with turtleneck, sport coat, big glasses, and thick-as-Ditka’s-mustache accent- unzips at the urinal

(Yep, the one I just cleaned) < THATS THE POEM - Question how does the speaker feel about his name?