The Name Experiment

I tried an experiment today.
It didn’t start out as one.
It just ended up as an experiment.

It happened at the Washtenaw Panera.
I ordered my lunch and responded ‘for here’.
I thought I would get one of those big blue beepers.

Instead, the man at the counter asked me my name.
I said ‘Lakshmi’ wondering whether to spell it out as usual.
I didn’t. I noticed he typed some letters on the keyboard regardless.

He told me to step to the end of the counter and my name would be called soon. Now I was curious. There was only one person ahead of me and she soon left.
Within a minute, the Asian girl at the counter looked up at me to give me my order.

Oh, I thought, that was easy. Nobody had to say anything.
Except that she did. Before I took my tray, she said, ‘Lashmi?”
Now that was pretty good for not having given any lessons to either of them.

I am grateful to NPR for hiring Lakshmi Singh.
It has made ‘Lakshmi’ almost as familiar as ‘Michelle’.
I didn’t think the man at the counter listened to NPR. Maybe he does.

Place and People Rhyme

Jorge’s in Norway
Sporting stubble bearded hair
Meeru’s in Peru
Tossing apples everywhere

Naina’s in China
Reading folk and fairy tales
Sapan’s in Japan
Stuffing octopus in quails

Ram’s in Vietnam
Planting rows of paddy shoots
Joe’s in Mexico
Climbing stairs in yak hide boots

Kapil’s in Brazil
Singing save the forest songs
Ria’s in Mongolia
Scooping sand with silver tongs

Thor’s in Equador
Mating mosquitoes and mice
Vanya’s in Tanzania
Eating mounds of ants and rice

This song must continue
With place and people names
So move these four lines down
And add your nonsense rhymes...