Name Game

[Todd]

Hi kolemath, welcome to the site! On the whole I enjoyed this. It was a fun read with some interesting lines. Some comments below:

Name Game


1
Your name

staked in your brain--Like the strophe break above for the pause and the emphasis. Also this comparison makes for a strong opening image (that you build upon well later).
like tracks of a railroad train.

If you had a different name,
would you be the same?--Interesting question. Does the name fix us to some destiny. In this it's good that you mentioned railroad tracks as they have a predetermined path.

Imagine the traveling pain--I get the need to rhyme with brain but I'm not sure travelling pain is the best phrasing.
from thousands of rattling trains
hammered across your brain
cuffing out rhythms,--cuffing is a nice word choice.
This is your name!
This is your name!
This is your name!

Do names limit lives
as tracks limit destinations?--Normally I'm leery of two many questions in poems, but your questions are less rhetorical and more thought provoking. I love where this question takes me.

Were I a Joe,
would I be a plumber?
Were I a Bob,
would I be a builder?--A few cultural touchstones. I may want to see Joe to Cletus in their own section.

I’ve yet to know Cletus the theorist.

2
Imagine naming yourself.

Slower.--Interesting use of the word here also with the additional full stop of the period. Sort of a your not listening let's try again moment.

Imagine naming 

your --This is a nice break

self

without the polluted distraction--This might be stronger pared down. Polluted distraction may itself be a distraction as its newly added here. Maybe more simply: "without the long traveled tracks...
of the long traveled tracks
your name has rattled along.

Now, imagine 
your 
self
unnamed because--I think unnamed needs to end a line due to its importance maybe some restructuring.

these pseudonyms won’t last.--Good ending 

Okay, I may have went a little overboard in novice, but I tried to keep my comments light. There's a lot I like here, and the poem has more depth than at first glance. I hope the comments help some.

Best,

Todd