7 haiku for Parsha Shemini by Rick Lupert (Rejoice, there is no rice that is forbidden!)

I
So much to give up
before the thing we want will
descend upon us.

II
Look, up on the sky,
A cloud of holiness. We
could use that today.

III
I can see the Lord
is pro-the death penalty.
Sons burst into flames.

IV
These words read like the
menu at Kentucky Fried
Chicken – Legs and thighs.

V
Got to know when to
hold ‘em, Aaron tells Moses
explaining a sin.

VI
Line up, animals!
Some of you can be eaten,
and some of you can’t.

VII
Snakes and insects on
the forbidden foods list, but
not Forbidden Rice.

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.