rishi patel

this is about the names we call ourselves

because my favorite part of a book

was when rishi talks to himself and he says

“pull yourself together patel”

and i realize two things at once

that probably a lot of people have names they use to talk to them self

and that mine was not my last name,

mine,

is maybe ordinary,

maybe not,

i’ve never asked others,

so what i know comes from books,

but

i call my self

babe

baby

hun

girl

darlin

dear

and i can not imagine calling me by my name

or my last name

it may seem like some

“positive self talk” tactic

but this isn’t

this is natural

that is just the way

i talk to me