In the days of yore
there lived a man
Sy Yence that
was his name
Science? his
seventh grade teacher
asked askance “Young man
what is your game?”
And so it went each year
from there
each first day of each school
when Sy Yence wrote
his legal name and
teachers thought he was
obnoxiously trying
to be cool
It didn’t take them long
to see that he was a quiet
boy burdened by his name
and after initial annoyance
one teacher after next
to Sy Yence’s side they came
Sy Yence was a quiet boy
repeatedly misunderstood
beneath his timid exterior
a rage in his heart grew
and so it was no real surprise
when the Chem Lab up he blew
He watched the flames from
on the lawn in his college
freshman year
as planned he was avenged
his eighteenth birthday near
In that day or two following
the transcendent conflagration
Sy Yence changed his
name to Joe Smith
and completed his transformation
Sy Yence had been a quiet
boy and grew to a strange and quiet man
Now Joe Smith sat alone with numbers, vials,
and complicated formulae
And when asked his name a flat cold smile
would preface his reply
as murder games danced within his heart
He’d answer “Just plain Joe Smith not ever again Sy”
Given his strange demeanor no one ever asked him why.
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