7 haiku for Parsha Tazria-Metzora by Rick Lupert (Plus a comforting video that involves potatoes)

I
How can a birth make
a woman unclean? When life
begins, it’s holy.

II
Priests with no degree
in medicine use their eyes
to divide the sick.

III
Road Trip! cried the man
with the discolored skin as
he left the city.

IV
Any excuse to
shave my entire body.
Plus give me two birds.

V
Of course if you can’t
afford two birds, discount fowl
are available.

VI
May have to tear down
little boxes when covered
with ticky-tacky.

VII
In encouraging news:
if you jump in the pool, all
will be forgiven.

And here’s a friendly poem video that focuses on potatoes which I hope you’ll find comforting after the imagery in Tazria-Metzora:

Los Angeles poet Rick Lupert created a the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 20 collections of poetry, including “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “Donut Famine” (Rothco Press, December 2016) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.