Rising to the Occasion — A poem for Torah Portion Shelach

and you will not fear the people of that land
for they are [as] our bread.
-Numbers 14:9

Let’s talk about bread.
Bread keeps you alive.

Four ingredients plus time –
Time is the secret ingredient.

The more patient you are
the more flavor you will earn.

It is simple. It is the best of
what wheat gives us. It is

gluten-free if you need or prefer.
It is a food group all by itself.

It is the least you will be given
plus water, if you find yourself

in that situation. So basic.
It is how we are told to regard

the inhabitants of the land of
milk and honey. Consumables.

I appreciate the encouragement but
when I see people on the other side

of any line, my mind does not
turn them into sandwiches.

I see arms and legs and hearts.
I see people with diets I’d like to

learn more about. I see shared
experiences that will keep us both alive.

Let us make bread together
instead of regarding the other

as consumable. This is another test
like the boy on the rock.

We should always assume there’s
a better choice hidden nearby.

Be patient, like waiting for the yeast
to do its work – you’ll find it.

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 25 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 “The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express” (Poems written in Japan – Ain’t Got No Press, August 2020) 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.