the child who is not embraced by
the village will burn it down to feel
its warmth —African proverb
Who didn't love you
the way you needed to be loved
is what I would ask the men
in their custom suits, pampered
and coddled, as they are,
by their kindling of dollars.
Moudi Sbeity is a Lebanese-American author, poet, and transpersonal psychotherapist. Born in Texas and raised in Lebanon, he moved to the United States at the age of eighteen as an evacuee following the 2006 July war. In Utah, Moudi founded and operated Laziz Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant celebrated by the New York Times as “the future of queer dining.” Moudi was also a named plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to Utah and the 10th circuit states in 2014. A lifelong stutterer, Moudi is passionate about writing and poetry as practices in fluency and self-expression. Their first poetry collection, Alhamdulillah Anyway, and their memoir, Habibi Means Beloved, are set to be published in 2026.