When we first bought the boat <br />My dad was focused on the rigging <br />The types and locations of winches and cleats <br />The sizes of the genoas and spinnakers <br />Making sure all halyards routed back to the cockpit <br />My attention was on coming up with a name <br />How about Clytemnestra? <br />I liked the sound of it <br />Like a bird taking flight from its nest <br />And more than a whiff of danger <br />My mother recoiled <br />Do you know who she was? <br />Might as well name it Darth Vader, she said. <br />My argument was that we should suggest something fearful <br />Like Iago or Billy the Kid <br />My mother laughed through her nose <br />And said other sailors would not be afraid <br />Of a boat named Iago. <br /> <br />Naming a boat is like naming a band <br />Going through reams of names <br />Over breakfast, in the car, on the phone <br />Some proffered humorously in exhaustion <br />But my suggestion was serious <br />Clytemnestra <br />Maybe I shouldn’t have offered it right off the bat <br />Maybe waited until they were worn down by the rejections <br />They ended up naming her Gemini <br />My mom’s sign. <br />I cringed at the blandness and thought it a curse <br />And the reason we won very few races<br /><br />Michael Philips<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/naming-the-boat/
