FROM LEBANON TO LEBANON

Poems about mothers are commonly written
by people much older than me

Or by people who knew their mother
and miss the days they spent together.

By people now struggling to finding their way
whose mother formed land on the map of their lives
or maybe she was the map itself
or maybe she was the key.

I never knew my mother
Does loss feel greater
When it’s complicated?
“I never knew my mother”

She might be sitting now in the hills
hearing the bombs;
I’m told she was there
when I was being born

Pierre Minar was born in Lebanon and grew up in New Jersey. His work has appeared in Hobart, a collection called Giant Robot Poems by Middle West Press, and a chapbook called Transmissions From My Yearning Chair by Bottlecap Press. When he is not writing poems he investigates Medicare fraud by big companies on behalf of the government. He lives in Dallas with his son.