after Benjamin Netanyahu,
United States Congress, July 24, 2024
In America, a murderer receives a standing ovation.
Meanwhile, bodies tally against the ground faster
than we can count.
I can’t quite decide what is more disturbing;
the chilling sound of applause cheering genocide,
or the large-scale catastrophe scorching the world.
It’s difficult to hope. It’s difficult to still believe in
our deserved forgiveness.
But I return to that soft and tender place in me that
reaches beyond anger. I return, again, to the wide open
grief stretched before us like a prayer rug. Not just for
the violence, but for the ineffable conditions that create
hardened cruelty in the hearts of the few, and the
unnerving ignorance shielding empathy from the many.
Towards what end do we hope to arrive? The only land
we get to own is the mapped terrain between first gasp
and final whimper. Nothing else is truly ours. Not even
this perennial breath we’ve been given.
What then? After your clapping victory.
What will you do with the terror in your heart?
Moudi Sbeity is a first-generation Lebanese-American poet and transpersonal therapist, and the author of the forthcoming books Want A World (Fernwood Press, 2026) and Habibi Means Beloved (University of Utah Press, 2026). In a previous life, Moudi co-owned and operated Laziz Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant in Salt Lake City. Moudi was also a named plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to Utah in 2014. As a person who stutters, they are passionate about writing and poetry as practices in fluency and self-expression. They call the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado home. Find them on Instagram at @moudi.sbeity and on Substack at moudisbeity.substack.com.
the Decolonial Passage 