Everett by Kwami Nyamidie

For Everett Amundsen

Many versions of Windows have come and gone
since I first met you.
 You came, 
through the library’s glass door.
You tore your little fingers from your mother’s grip
and scampered to the front desk. 
You were so short
I could barely see you. 
Do you remember?

“What’s your name?” you ask.
I didn’t want to shock you by saying 
“Little boy, I don’t have a name.”
“Kwami,” I say instead.
“What?”
“Kwami as in Swami.”
And you call to your mom
“His name is Snoqualmie”
“Not Snoqualmie. Kwami” she says.
You giggle. A flash of insight beamed in your eyes:
“Snoqualmie, Sno-Kwami”

“And what’s your name,” I ask.
“Everett,” you say.
“You live in Everett?”
“No,” Victoria says. “That’s his name, Everett.”
“Everett on Mount Everest”, I say.
“Everett Amundsen”, Victoria says. 
“Everett who?” I ask.
“Everett’s last name is Amundsen. 
He is a descendant of Roald Amundsen, 
the famous Norwegian explorer.” 
I am in the presence of history.

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Kwami Nyamidie is an award-winning poet and freelance writer with a focus on spiritual matters. He holds a Master of Arts in Transforming Spirituality from Seattle University, a certificate in Creative Writing and Project Management from Wesleyan University and the University of California in Irvine respectively. The author of Thirst No More: A Fable of Hope and Forgiveness and Ready for Your Love and Other Poems, Nyamidie is working on a new collection of poems that spans over forty years of creativity to be published this year.