The Curse of Long Eyebrows – a poem for Torah portion Emor

For any man who has a defect should not approach

Behold the defects which prohibit you from
dwelling in the Lord’s presence.

(I use the word Lord anachronistically as
the idea that God is a man is as ridiculous
as the things on this list.)

If you’re blind (Seems cruel.)

If you have a sunken nose
(Unclear if they mean your nose went
down with a ship. Look for treasure!)

If your limbs are mismatched
(Didn’t God make everyone’s limbs?
Surely that’s not their fault.)

If your arm or leg is broken
(We’re, literally, adding insult to injury here.)

If you have long eye brows
(Finally those long eye-browed maniacs
are getting what’s coming to them!)

If your testicles are crushed
(No comment.)

There are more…the commingling eye
the weeping sores.

Any excuse to separate human
from holiness, it seems.

I prefer Abraham’s whole open-tent vibe.
Let all who are anything

dwell amongst the holy presence.
There’s enough of God’s food
to go around

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.