7 Haiku for Parsha Re’eh (in which we’re reminded where our tushies need to go) by Rick Lupert

I
Blessings or curses –
Choose your mountain carefully
You only get one

II
Your intention when
slaughtering a cow matters
and the location

III
Your voodoo doesn’t
matter if you don’t come with
divine credentials

IV
Body ink may look
cool but it ain’t Kosher – And
don’t eat flying bugs

V
One tenth of your food
shall be eaten in the place
that God will show you

VI
What a world we could
have if we forgave our debts
every seven years

VII
Passover, Sukkot,
Shavuot – Get your male
Tushles to the Shul

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 21 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 “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.