Vox Populi
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Moudi Sbeity: Watching the Tall Burly Man at the Ice Cream Shop Lick His Cone
This might be what softens everyone to me,
what might eventually bring us all to the table.
I watched him walk away from the register,
all rough and tarnished, hard in the heart –
I could tell – even mad in the eyes, lifting the
cone to his slightly cocked head, tongue sticking
out, wiping itself in a swirl along the sugar spire.
How it humbles us all to the pleasing senses, and
nothing is wrong in the world from the moment
the angel behind the counter hands you the
creamed pacifier until you seal your lips around
the last lick, and for a short while after that.
~~~
Copyright 2025 Moudi Sbeity
Moudi Sbeity is a Lebanese American poet, writer, and psychotherapist based in Boulder, Colorado. Moudi’s first book, Habibi Means Beloved, a memoir on growing up queer and stuttering in Lebanon, is expected to be published in late 2026 by University of Utah Press.
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its high time for such a poem as this! The leveling moment of satiety and search for sweetness in the oft unlikely subject of humankind. There is mediation for winter cold in icecream, restores a little what the season steals and gives one a sense of escape. You should hear the cries across the land, of 300 cows and their calves ringing out hunger this time of year, listened from my writing desk before I go out and start dreaming solutions. By the light of this poem, I shall look for the strange loveliness of a frosted pasture and marvel how it stays in the tree shadows thrown by the rising light.
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This is beautiful writing, Sean. Thank you.
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I adore your Ben and Jerry’s confessional and the ten points. It all figures in, helps me through this tough moment of the year. Those frost shadows can only be seen because of the sheer treachery of the cold. So there’s still loveliness in anything, there’s still icecream!
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Thank you, Sean. Every day I look forward to seeing your comments here.
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