Ansel Elkins’s “Minister of Loneliness”

The LARB Quarterly, issue no. 44, “Pressure,” presents a new poem by Ansel Elkins.

By Ansel ElkinsApril 14, 2025

• LARB Lit

• Poetry

This poem is a preview of the LARB Quarterly, no. 44: Pressure. Become a member for more fiction, essays, criticism, poetry, and art from this issue—plus the next four issues of the Quarterly in print.

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Minister of Loneliness

In a season of empty playgrounds,
the stillness of swings in winter—
we’ve come to study a nation’s loneliness.
Here a child’s woolen red mitten
cast off
in soot & snow. Note the ghostlike
plastic bag that rolls down the street
saying Thank You.
Observe the dozens of dark windows
in apartments at dusk,
the lit & unlit rooms
of our lives, the flickering blue
of TV screens. All the women
watch from kitchen windows
in evenings after work. Framed by floral
curtains, a woman’s face
veiled in steam
from hot water running
in the sink. Note how a woman forgets
she’s a wife, lost in daydream;
her stillness like a tilt-a-whirl
rusting in winter rain. Count
the strangers waiting at bus stops, each alone
in their earbuds & puffy coats. Listen closely
to the sound of freight trains.
Stroll along the steel bridge
as a current of young lovers sweeps by arm-in-arm
going elsewhere. Wade into their voices
& perfumes that pass you. Even the evening sun,
descending into the river, leaves you.
Survey the nighttime streets, rows
of houses warmed by lamplight
through the blinds. Be still.
Savor the weight of falling snow
on your coat, your eyelashes. Close
your eyes. See the old man on a park bench tossing birdseed
to the sparrows, invisible. His open hand.

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Featured image: John La Farge. Snow Field, Morning, Roxbury, 1864. Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Frank L. Sulzberger in memory of Mr. Frank L. Sulzberger, Art Institute of Chicago (1981.287). CC0, artic.edu. Accessed April 10, 2025. Image has been cropped.