what's in a name

Classy, yet more farm girlish. Easy to say, hard to spell. Named after my great great aunt. It’s my mom’s Def Leppard cd playing, her James Dean poster in her college dorm room, the clay figures, and finger paintings. It’s the sound of my dad’s welder and the smell of his smoker, it is his can of chew sitting in the middle of the dashboard, it’s the oil for tuning the cars. It goes perfect with my sisters name on our Christmas cards; “Merry Christmas, from the Ballews, Mark, Jodi, Maegan, and Amanda”. When said in anger and rage, it turns red, as if my entire name could be one word. When said in praise it simply turns a brilliant white. It’s the sounds of a rumbling car down the street, or a machine being operated on in a maintenance shop. Maegan, pronounced just like it looks, Mae-gan, simple. The only sweet part is my last name, Ballew. It’s a color, a bear, and a cat, sweet I know. My grandfather uses it as an excuse, and my dad uses it as if it were an action word like running or jumping. That or you can call me Sister Mary Clarence.