I
No, Mister Pharaoh
You can not keep the children
as security.
II
First the locusts, then
a darkness, so pitch dark, it
embarrassed the night.
III
Maybe the cattle
in exchange for freedom? No
conditions at all.
IV
It will happen at
midnight, Pharaoh is warned. God
invents Rosh Chodesh.
V
I’d paint anything
on my door if it meant I
could live through the night.
VI
Midnight came and the
firstborn went. There’ll be no time
to let the bread rise.
VII
Remember this day
with nothing leavened and put signs
on your hands and eyes.
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.
