Rui's my name a name
even my mother can't
teach me how to pronounce
As I grew old enough
to meet perfect strangers
not just children who rhyme
Needlessly for humor
to create a distance
between the foreigner
Directly before them
the son of immigrants
they must somehow denounce
Of course to understand
how a Portuguese name
and an Indian boy
Make sense in the real world
you must know how a sword
converts people to faith
Ask the perfect strangers
how they pronounce my name
and confusion rises
Confusion because R
at the start of my name
sounds like a language crime
Criminals say hooey
to distilling moonshine
sit me in the corner
Entertaining a dunce
who can't even pronounce
his fully given name
Simple for a small boy
in Lisbon or Rio
but I felt like a toy
Simpleminded children
could pull a cord to hear
a rhyme cut on a lathe
Miraculously life
could never stunt my wit
intellect in sizes
Even I couldn't know
the brain a strange muscle
convoluted in turns
Mapping such turns as rhymes
I created a form
of poetry no one
On Earth will ever try
to mimic something mine
no one will try to tame
Realize I came here
not against my own will
but not by choice returns
You never earn interest
on such an investment
with my life near half done
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