George

What's in a name? So much.

It’s a name

But oh so much more.

My life has been punctuated

With Georges,

The first in a long string

Of presidents.

Washington

Of course

On the one dollar bill.

But also

My great grandfather

In Napoleon, North Dakota.

Bank president.

We have a family dollar bill

He signed.

Back then

Legal tender was signed

By bank presidents.

It is framed

In my brother’s house

In Minnesota.

These are singular

Georges.

When my brother and boy cousins

Were born

My grandmother offered a ransom

If one of them was given the name

Of George.

No one took the bait.

Years later she had a dog,

A Maltese,

She named him George,

Drove him around

In her Cadillac.

Since then I have known

Many Georges

They join a long line

Of singularities.