I am a Remnant of Jacob – A Poem for Haftarah Balak by Rick Lupert

I am a remnant of Jacob.
His blood and flesh, part of
my blood and flesh.

I see him in my toenails and
whenever I need a bandaid.
I am a remnant of Jacob.

Whenever I go to Temple
I begin to see how I can
piece him back together.

I am a remnant of Jacob.
I’ve got Egypt and Canaan
coming out of my nostrils.

I’ve got memories of
cities destroyed for my kin
the other remnants of Jacob.

I am a remnant of Jacob.
I don’t know from graven images.
If you ask me to do sorcery

I wouldn’t know where to begin.
I am a remnant of Jacob.
I hold memories of promises

to be lifted above my oppressors
to have my enemies vanquished
to be made like rain upon the soil.

I am remnant of Jacob.
Call me Jacob when you see me.
I’ll know what you mean.

Los Angeles poet Rick Lupert created 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 22 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “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 “Beautiful Mistakes” (Rothco Press, May 2018) and edited the anthologies “A Poet’s Siddur: Shabbat Evening“,  “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.