“Minister of Loneliness” by Yahia Lababidi
Minister of Loneliness
I wonder what are the qualifications
for such a lamentable post,
what lessons learned can be shared;
how might such a job description read?
Prospective applicants must be intimate
with isolation, desolation, desperation
able to minister to moral injury
or spiritual woundedness
Please, attach a portfolio of personal relations
that have not ended badly,
and, if they have, how have you
bounced back, sidestepping abysses
Tell us, do you recognize loneliness
as a public health crisis
Can you decipher the subtle clues
of this insidious pandemic?
Successful candidates must be virtuosos of suffering
sensitive, of course, yet impervious to lingering sadness
tirelessly capable of encouraging others despite,
at times, feeling defeated or assaulted by pointlessness
If appointed, what would you do differently
from the previous three Ministers of Loneliness
who struggled with this title? How will you overcome
that loneliness of perpetual sociability?
Are you willing and able to work alongside
those unacknowledged ministers of loneliness
mystics, poets and artists of all stripes
who serve this role, quietly, without credit?
Lastly, candidates must agree to submit
to a lie detector test, to prove that
their online friendships are satisfying,
and posts of smiling selfies or social media persona
are not, in fact, an elaborate fabrication.
“During a Genocide” by Yahia Lababidi
“At Gaza Zoo” by Yahia Lababidi
Yahia Lababidi is the author of eleven collections of poetry and prose. [His most recent collection is titled Palestine Wail, from which the above poem and this author note is taken.] His aphorisms and poems have gone viral, are used in classrooms, religious services and have been featured at international film festivals. Lababidi has also contributed to news, literary, and cultural institutions throughout the USA, Europe and the Middle East, including Oxford University, Pearson, the PBS NewsHour, NPR, HBO as well as ABC Radio. His latest work includes a collection of his aphorisms on morality and mortality, Quarantine Notes (Fomite Press, 2023), Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022), a bilingual photographic account of mystical encounters in the desert, and Learning to Pray (Kelsay Books, 2021), a collection of spiritual reflections.
