The Lord said to Moses: Count every firstborn male aged one month and upward of the children of Israel, and take the number of their names. ~ Numbers 3:40
What if holiness was contagious?
Instead of a virus, you could breathe
nearby the fallen and they’d take it in.
I’d take off my mask for that.
I’d pay the five shekel fee for that.
I’d try to give it to the ones I see
in the news who look like they
really need it. What if holiness was
contagious? Passed on from
a one-month-old who hasn’t had
the chance to learn about mistakes?
One with the cleanest slate –
One who, if you looked up
their record, it just said still infused
with the light of creation.
What if holiness was contagious?
And no medicine could contain it?
And Doctor Fauci said it’s fine?
And everyone trusted Doctor Fauci
instead of the liars and the greedy
and the fundamentally extreme?
This poem has an agenda and
it wants to infect you. This poem wants
its writer to take it seriously.
No one gets out of this agenda.
This pandemic of righteousness.
This put away your cure,
this is the cure. What if holiness was
contagious? I won’t be at work today.
I’ve caught the world yet to come.
It’s a serious case. I don’t expect
to get better from this. There is no
better than this.
Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 28 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Find him online at www.JewishPoetry.net
