Kelly Thompson

Issue One, Student

AUTOETYMOLOGY

My name, Kelly, is an Irish name

of uncertain origin, but I was always

told that it came from ceallach,

which is Old Irish for war

or strife.

So why is it that when I hear my

own name I do not hear the clanging

of halberds or the riastrad war cries

of Ulster’s Hound?

Instead I hear the sound of an applicator

wand plunging into a tube of lip gloss.

I smell mall food bourbon chicken and

fresh Subway bread the furthest smells

from peat and soil. This is not the name

of a poetess.

It is the name of a girl who spent her

early years telling herself morbid stories

with dolls and taking pleasure in her

own furtiveness. A colonized Irish name

for a colonizer born of the blood of

colonizers that

have not yet been ejected. Also, a shade

of green, but not my

favorite shade of

green.

About Kelly Thompson
Kelly Thompson is a 23-year-old graduating senior at Temple University. She lives in Philadelphia, counting the days until she can move into a pet-friendly apartment.