Anne of All Myths by Anne Graue

In 2016 there were at least 500

 

          names better, according to one poll

 

                    but in 1962, Anne’s were in fashion.

 

I could have been Ana, Anika, Anoushka,

 

          somewhere else—a Marianne or Annemarie

 

                     (Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s name was Anne)

 

Hathaway, Boleyn, Bronte, Frank, Heche

 

          and of course she was a saint—

 

                    307 people deemed Anne to be a good name,

 

Classically feminine, maturely formal, upper-class

 

          natural, wholesomely strong, refinedly boring,

 

                    simply seriously nerdy

 

the e at the end makes it look finished

 

          I wanted to be Annemarie or Marianne

 

                    tried Annie—too cute—only a few

 

have gotten away with that, and they were men

 

          willing to risk the added syllable.

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Anne Graue is the author of Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press, 2017), and has published poems in literary journals and anthologies, including The Book of Donuts (Terrapin Books), Blood and Roses: A Devotional for Aphrodite and Venus (Bibliotheca Alexandrina), The Plath Poetry Project, One Sentence Poems, Random Sample Review, The New Verse News, and Rivet Journal. She is a contributing editor for the Saturday Poetry Series at Asitoughttobe.com.