With a Rebel Yell – A poem for parsha Korach

Moses heard and fell on his face.

When the impatient men of repute
…….confronted the big kehunah
concerned he had elevated himself
…….above them all
These same men who
…….built a calf in the desert
These same men who
…….complained at every dry rock
These same men
…….who begged to go back to
the familiar bondage
…….of the narrow place.
Moses heard and fell on his face.
…….It’s not as slapstick as it sounds.
There was no body stiffening and
…….emergency of gravity joining the prophet’s beard
…….with the rapidly approaching ground.
This was head in hands
…….This was again with this?
The mensch of all mensches
…….former prince who gave it all up
…….to eat flat bread in the desert.
For all his efforts he doesn’t even
…….get his name in the Haggadah.
Just a rebellion at every turn
…….baldness, ice hail and frost
Just a disenfranchised cabal
…….yelling more more more
Until his burial at an undisclosed location
…….while the Korachs and
…….other reputers
eventually cross the river and
…….leave him with his
…….head forever in his hands.

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 23 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 “Hunka Hunka Howdee!” (Poems written in Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville – Ain’t Got No Press, May 2019) 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.