Natural Born Coveter – A poem for Parsha Vayishlach

But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother;
let what you have remain yours.”
-Genesis 33:9

We, in the land of plenty
are natural-born coveters.

The inches on our TV’s
The newness of our cars

The number of cars and
the number of spaces

we have in which to put our cars.
The devices we hold

in our hands to communicate
with other people’s devices.

More than six months old?
Have we failed at life?

I remember overhearing a
midwest teen demand

designer bedsheets.
When we sit on airplanes

everyone in front of us
royalty

everyone behind us
society’s scourge.

Didn’t need to take a plane
to go on vacation?

How quaint.
Hotel brand status?

I want my free bottles of water
because I’m on your list

or I’d like to speak
to your manager.

Esau surprised us all when he
didn’t want what Jacob had brought.

Aware of his plenty
he took payment in hugs.

Even after the deceit
with the hairy arms

and the foolishness with
the fresh stew

He was content to be
on this side of the river

with his
long lost brother.

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.