I came across my middle name
whose innocence I thought forgotten
in slumber repeating itself
like a zebra on water.

I count the letters
the sound itches my brain
as an accordion hitting
the underground's walkers.

Incidentally, I don't read Vanity Fair
maybe because I'm vain
I don't read poems to my mother
maybe because she is there

I don't read my middle name
on purpose,
afraid in vain of another
person's silence.