My First Hanukkah

I remember my first Hanukkah.
I was seven years old and

my mother walked into the bathroom with
a Charlie Brown toothbrush and said

This is your Hanukkah present.
I heard the word present loud and clear

But up to that point no-one had bothered
to tell me I was Jewish so I wasn’t ready

for the full weight of this gift.
They told me later it’s because

the oil lasted for eight nights
but I can’t find that in any of the text

So I’m left wanting to believe as I
stuff potato pancakes into my mouth.

(I’ll believe anything if potatoes are involved)

They say we only give presents because that’s
what everyone in this American neighborhood does.

I’m okay with that.
I’m okay with giving and receiving.

I’m okay with lighting up the night
one candle at a time through my window.

I’m okay that fruitcake isn’t part of our tradition.
(Assimilation isn’t always the best way.)

Let us remember what may have happened
thousands of years ago.

Let us light up the night with that belief.
Let us wipe out the hate,

one Charlie Brown toothbrush at a time.
Your dentist will thank you.

Your Rabbi will thank you.
Don’t have a rabbi? Talk to any of them

They’ll be glad to oblige.
We’re one potato pancake away

from a miracle.

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.