Caged Beauty – a poem for Parsha Ki Teitzei

If you are at war and find
your captives are beautiful

the laws of our people,
seventy four of which are

listed this week, tell you
this could lead to a

bonafide engagement.
If you are at war and you

find your captives are
beautiful, how does that

make you feel about
having taken them captive?

If you are at war and find
your captives are beautiful

who has captured who?
If you are at war and find

your captives are beautiful
do you forget what it is

the war was about?
Do you forget the meaning

of the word war? Do you
get in the cage with your

captives and lose yourself
in their beauty?

If you are at war and find
your captives are beautiful

you may take them home.
That is allowed, according

to the words we read this
week, and every time this

week comes along in the
years past, and the ones

which will pass. You may
find, after a time, your

beautiful captives, in your
home, may not find you

the way you find them, and
after a time, you will have

to let them go to wherever
it is they wish to go.

That is the law. That is
the sacred word on

the beautiful, who you’ve
captured. (Did you see

they were beautiful before
or after you captured them?)

Let them go. They will not
sing in your cage, these birds

of war, these human birds,
these spoils of war who

will not spoil, these captives.
You know what to do.