{"id":4358,"date":"2026-02-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/?p=4358"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:10:07","slug":"to-the-mother-i-never-met","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/to-the-mother-i-never-met\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Mother I Never Met"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By Bean Gast, Editor<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Mother I saw you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Mehrangez,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in my great-grandmother\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pure Persian joy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I heard you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Mehrangeez,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in my great-grandmother\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farsi,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which sounded like poetry <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I hear you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Khosro,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in my grandfather\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n

accent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

never able to say the \u201cth\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I see you in <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khoosheh, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

my cousin <\/p>\n\n\n\n

through the screen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sitting cozy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sipping black tea in Tehran <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I see you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Mehry, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in my own mother\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n

dark brown eyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in her jet black frizzy hair<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I see you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Soriya, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

my sister <\/p>\n\n\n\n

whose eyes are a mirror to mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

big green wide <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I see you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in me <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the bridge of my nose <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the shape of my eyes <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the hair of my body <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I become you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in food<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when I devour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the saffron, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

sumac, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

pomegranate, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

hummus <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I feel you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the love <\/p>\n\n\n\n

from my ancestors <\/p>\n\n\n\n

holding me tightly <\/p>\n\n\n\n

honoring my body<\/p>\n\n\n\n

honoring my blood <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mother I see you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

on TV<\/p>\n\n\n\n

again through a screen <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thousands of killings <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Dear Mother whom I\u2019ve never met,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pray <\/p>\n\n\n\n

that I will not fund<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the bombing of you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I pray<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the day that the people who belong to you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

your children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

will escape the chains of the Republic <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I pray <\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the day that I see you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I become you <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRAN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A portrait of Mehrangez Zandi taken in Iran. | Unknown <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bean Gast, Editor Mother I saw you  in Mehrangez, in my great-grandmother\u2019s pure Persian joy Mother I heard you  in Mehrangeez, in my great-grandmother\u2019s  Farsi, which sounded like poetry …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-4358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4358"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4449,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4358\/revisions\/4449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4358"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=4358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}