All the Fish in the Sea – A poem for Parsha Acharei Mot

No man shall come near to any of his close relatives, to uncover [their] nakedness. I am the Lord. ~ Leviticus 18:6

There are plenty of fish in the sea
but not all of them are available to you.
Not your sister or parents or children.
Not anyone with the same last name as you
Or anyone who once had the same last name as you.

This is not how it works in the royal family
but odds are you are not in the royal family.
My mother always suspected she was
in the royal family but no correspondence
ever came confirming it so, I am taking
these prohibitions seriously.

There are plenty of fish in the sea but
you’d be better off with a human anyway.
There are billions of them out there.
The number gets smaller when we
restrict ourselves to the children of
Abraham and Sarah.

Don’t be too concerned about that –
Yes, we are all family, despite distance
and generations of disagreements.
But so much time has gone by
it’s no longer about blood, but
shared interests.

There are plenty of fish in the sea
and birds in the sky, and mammals
in the plains and jungle and
some even dwell in the mountains.

So find the right one to complete you.
Not too similar. Let them complement
what you bring. Let yourself change
as they change until you are definitively
one soul and one flesh whose nakedness
is only available to each other.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 27 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Find him online at www.JewishPoetry.net