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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Existential Threats” Down in the Dirt, v172 (the June 2020 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Outside the Box the Down in the Dirt May-Aug. 2020 issues collection book		get the 422 page May-Aug. 2020 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Schooling

Carla M. Cherry

I was 17. Tutoring second graders.
First day. Calling roll.
Last girl on the list was the quiet one at the table.
Suddenly I was tongue-tripping all over her name:
Nkechinyere.
Can I call you Nikki?
Sing-song style and smiling.
She shook her head. Silent.
Never lowered her seven-year-old gaze.
My cheeks,
two burning bushes.
Why hadn’t I asked her to say it for me?
One black girl colonizing another,
rendering her name into nebulae.
I nodded at her.
That night, as if her name was a set of pearls,
I opened the clasp.
Pulled each pearl of a syllable off:
N-
Kech-
in-
ny-
e-
re.
Strung them back together until Nkechinyere
undulated
like a psalm,
like a rowboat down the Orimiri River.
When I discovered that her name is Igbo
and means “what God has given”,
or “gift of God”
I understood her silent insistence:
Say it right.

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