a little known fact about me. John Powers is not really my real name. it's actually Sean Powers. from the time i was born until the second grade, everyone in my world called me Sean.
it's because when i was living in England, my god parents and other friends of my parents were pure Irish, they hated the English, they were Hard Core Irish�
as a result everyone but my parents refused to call me by my English name; they called me Sean [the Irish name for John] and it stuck.
when I came over the pond and was introduced to my Grandparents and family, they were a bit confused, "who's this sean person, i thought he was john..." but they understood the nick-name thing pretty quickly and everything was fine...
that is until Sister Dolorita of the catholic school from hell [St. Joseph�s of Webster Massachusetts] made the class stop calling me Sean and call me my Christian - god given baptized oh my god never ever ever go against he church or you'll burn in hell you satanic little devil child who scribbled in his spelling workbook with a red crayon so now i'm gonna rap your knuckles with a ruler - name of John.
have i ever mentioned my disdain for Catholicism? i have other reasons... for ignoring my christian upbringing [like common sense], but nevertheless to this day my entire family calls me Sean.
every living relative and every friend i've had since childhood calls me Sean. i would have signed up as Sean on my first poetry open mic and managed to get my name back to where it belongs, but i screwed it up because i was so nervous and alas i lost the latest opportunity to get my old name back.
it�s not confusing though - having two names - after all these years i can hardly tell the difference between the sounds of John and Sean and rarely notice when someone get�s cute and switches names on me.
i wish everyone called me Sean, it makes me feel closer to home� like family.
-Sean