Poem of the Week 36

Addition By Subtraction?

Adopt, if you aspire to lasting fame
A hifalutin, hyphenated name
Like Rimsky-Korsakov or Chiang Kai-shek,
Love-Hewitt, Temple-Black, Toulouse-Lautrec,
Jay-Z, Abdul-Jabbar, or Sun Yat-Sen,
Ben-Gurion, Ice-T, Henin-Hardenne,
Ms. Zeta-Jones, Bourke-White, or Bulwer-Lytton,
Or Parker-Bowles (so many from Great Britain!),
Day-Lewis, Louis-Dreyfus, Newton-John,
Or even villains like Abdel-Rahman,
Their names embellished by a simple touch.
(Who knew a minus sign could add so much?!)

—Bob McKenty