The Name

A name written in sand

by a child's hand

On a San Quentin prison wall

by an inmate's fingernail;

in blood stains

on doorposts;

in small-print footnotes

in dissertations

A name tattooed on aged skin

adjacent to thorns and blood

Etched in the collective memory

of survivors of the storm

A name spoke over heads

sung over bodies

both dead and alive

or over those immersed in water

A named breathed out

at the moment of death

carried on butterflies wings

to the cusp of paradise

A name on quivering lips

of a shell-shocked combat soldier

alone in a foxhole
while bullets lacerate the air
A name squeezed out in chopping coughs

through clenched and chipped teeth

A name whispered by a widowed woman

Who mourns the loss of her spouse

A name cried in murmured lament

over the pain in a child's death

A name given to

Something that once

had no name

Between desire

Between pain

Between fire

Between blame

Jesus Christ

Paradise regained

The name above all names

echoing in the halls and corridors of eternity