starting with my Black niggas& assorted non-white niggas& even some white niggas!even the other Nate Marshall…actually especially him.what up to all the Nate Marshalls!there’s a hockey player& a comedian& 1 on acoustic guitar&1 time a dude i knew hit me up relieved & shakenwhen his timeline told him Nate Marshall had been murderedbut it was a different me somewhere on the North Side.definitely peace to that Nate Marshall& to his people who would have been relievedhad i been the news article instead of their sweet, beautiful boy.love to y’all & to all the me’s not here to still be stupid.all the me’s not around to make mistakes & make amends.all the me’s who are fertilizer & not growing theyselves no more.family, this is my name& a myth that i don’t own alone. i never even meantto have this name this just a happy accident of birth,an unhappy coincidence of intersecting histories,an abbreviation that became law.look niggas, Nathaniel became Nate & is both. true story.did y’all niggas know i meet siblings every daywho change they name to touch they truths? i knowthat. & i know there’s finna be at least 1 nigga who readthis poem out loud when they know they ain’t got no goodbusiness with my name in they mouth. i know there’s finna beat least 1 nigga who email me to ask why i gotta usesuch an ugly word to call myself & my people& i’m just gonna respond & say which word? i been had a fewnames the world gave me & then won’t call me. i been had a namesoft & pliant as a tonal language. i been had a namethat was offensive or a love song dependingon who held it in they mouth.