Anne of All Myths
By Anne Graue
It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!
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.
Anne Graue is the author of Full and Plum-Colored Velvet (Woodley Press, 2020) and Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press, 2017) and has poetry in SWWIM Every Day, Verse Daily, Rivet Journal, Mom Egg Review, Flint Hills Review, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, EcoTheo Review, and in print anthologies, including The Book of Donuts (Terrapin Books, 2017) and Coffee Poems (World Enough Writers, 2019). Her book reviews appear in FF2 Media, Adroit, Green Mountains Review, Glass Poetry Journal, and The Kenyon Review. She is a poetry editor for The Westchester Review.
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Um, wow, from another 1962 Anne here. I enjoyed the poem but am a little freaked out. My middle name begins with G and my family called me Angie sometimes. I guess I occasionally wanted something fancier, but more a longer name that could be shortened in some cool way.