Beirut Survivors Anonymous by Haas H. Mroue

We are experiencing post - traumatic stress
somewhere in Massachusetts, Colorado.
We don't attend Beirut Survivors Anonymous.

As a direct address to the Beirut civil war "Beirut Survivors Anonymous" by Haas H. Mroue presents the conflicts concerning the aftermath of the war and how the civilians escaped, particularly as this conflict relates to how the narrator's "culture that has no name" find refuge in material goods and ecstasy pills yet they truly find refuge in the "rhythm of the Mediterranean." From rooftops the speaker looks at rockets fly over head: "until my eyes hurt." The speaker notes that he is in contact with the outside world through radio:

I listen for names of the dead
on the radio, putting faces to names,
scars to bodies, burns to flesh.

The narrator’s tone is melancholy with tinges of irony and contempt. The narrator’s contempt is for the fact that his generation drives BMW’s, yet they wish for:

a flying roadblock,
Howitzers, sniper, anything
to replace the monotony of oceans.

A howitzer is a type of artillery piece that is characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small explosive charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent.

The narrator uses “eyes” as symbolism to carry the poem back and forth from Beirut to the States. The eyes contribute to the poem’s theme by being in the beginning, middle and end of the poem.

Although there is not a resolution in the poem, the eyes play with the notion that the eyes are windows to one’s soul. Eyes witness, eyes cry, eyes can go blind, eyes close and sleep, eyes see and reveal truth and lies. The narrator reveals that he has “always been alone. But now I sink and it’s not the Mediterranean.”

The comparison and contrast of the oceans represents the miles and miles that the narrator is from home. The narrator’s deep connection with Beirut is revealed in the first line “on good nights I watch rockets fly.”
The narrator is then flying in an airplane:

I fly coach cross- continent
searching for someone
to recreate my childhood with.

Post-traumatic stress is also known as "fight" or "flight" when someone is afraid. The fact that the narrator says "searching for someone to recreate my childhood with" emphasizes his inability to cope with death and that he witnessed all that death.

The narrator points to specific “I” moments but then quickly changes to “we” to describe the impact of the war on a community. “You” is only time mentioned once towards the end of the poem:

You can look into our eyes
and see we’ve been to Beirut.

“You” may suggest Americans, youth from the current generation, elders, family, or strangers.

There are many end-paused lines good, fly, dead, candlelight, now, sink, someone, no name, young.

I found it interesting that the second to last stanza's first line
"You can look in our eyes" can be on its own with the last line of the poem:
"after a car bomb."

Post - traumatic stress is experienced collectively even though all the survivors are in Colorado, Los Angeles, Long Island, Burbank, Fort Lauderdale, on the corner of College and 13th, Massachusetts, Colorado. As a side note, there has been a recent study that taking ecstasy pills radically improves PTSD survivors. Interestingly, Mroue mentions "popping ecstasy pills hoping to be artistic." Ecstasy releases the narrator's generation from the war and is a way to be emotionally detached from reality. I believe that the narrator is being elusive after he lists the ways his generation escapes but its not as real as:

"wishing for a roadblock,
Howitzers, snipers, anything
to replace the monotony of the oceans
for the rhythm of the Mediterranean."

~Melissa