Good Luck to the Designer Who Has to Come up With an Image for This Poem – A poem for Parsha Tazria-Metzora

…and will remain ritually defiled until nightfall. ~ Leviticus 15:16

Suffice it to say
(which is a terrible way
to begin a poem)

if it is inside you
and it comes out of you
be prepared to

check out until nightfall.
If this is the kind of
thing you do a lot

see if a frequent
customer discount is
available at the mikveh.

Be thankful this
is just words as no one
needs visuals here.

This affects the
chairs and other things
you sit on so

if you have guests over
well, at this point you
shouldn’t have guests over.

This affects the things you
ride on. I’m not going to
get into what those might be.

You’re going to need a deep
cleaning, an immersive cleaning.
A Roomba is not going to cut it.

A brand new holy space
just got assembled. You
don’t want to defile it

so soon into our story.
A reminder of this will come
every year, but

only in words.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 28 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Visit him at www.JewishPoetry.net