Interview With My
Father: Maps
Ruth Awad
Each story is an X
on the map of his country.
Abou Samra,
the fairgrounds,
70
sniper fire from the olive trees.
Another life ago, where the road
chased the Mediterranean
like ink down a fingernail.
I don’t ask what I want to:
Would you have left with me?
Baba, who did you want to win the war?
The map between us like proof
I don’t know this world.