Change

By Anna Higgins

There was a time I had another name
And with it lived another life
And everything and nothing was the same.

The days were full of vigor, joy, and blame,
An admixture of of sweetness and strife
There was a time when I had another name.

There were some thing I wished I could disclaim
And surgically remove with a sharpened knife
And everything and nothing was the same.

So Anna was the name I would proclaim
And Jo was left behind with the old life
There was a time I had another name.

At first it seemed a strange and silly game,
The thought that I could lead another life,
And everything and nothing was the same.

But slowly it was Anna I became,
With Jo a dancing shadow of that life,
There was a time I had another name,
And everything and nothing was the same.


This poem first appeared in Seasoned Voices, a chapbook put out by the Brookline Senior Center.