These poems examine how language is translated and how sexuality and gender roles are perceived in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Crossing country borders and contested nationhood, the collection follows a woman who follows a man who leaves her to fight for her. Each piece in the poetic narrative questions how relationships function and malfunction before, during, and after wars. Under Her is a personal contemplation on the politics of misunderstanding, reinventing and reexamining it's ideals through each adventure and dialogue. Indeed, this work explores the idea that while a fixed ideal, in love or politics, may not be possible or even useful, one does desire evidence of something beyond the world of first /takes/appearances/givens - if only because one does not want to be a slave to the immobility of one's reality. The central characters, instead, are governed by a pursuit of meaning beyond their control. Through a process of repetition and re-editing, capture and recapture, something is made clear to the lovers, even if that clarity is not lasting or the whole picture. In this collection, each poem is interested in taking the closest look at life, over and over again.

Alexei Perry Cox is a Montreal-based writer. Under Her was largely written in Beirut. 

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