Mother—Tongue

the language I come from

has no mother

so what if I don’t have a mother

tongue that rolls off my lips

Arabic Hebrew English

never quite reaching my mouth

spoken over my head

I was the seed

rotting in the lucky

country

new roots words stresses

my mother had no idea

she was marrying

can you have a tongue

without a mother

my mother

never spoke to me

except to ask

for chamomile tea

a hot water bottle

or to turn the heater up

warm cold truths

the truth

mother’s tongue

is heavy

with metered mistakes

her mother lost

her Judeo-Arabic

son in the refugee camp pit

burying her tongue

with his small body

it’s no wonder

God has no mother

this world mouthed

into being

broken