If God had only brought us out from Egypt
it would have been enough.
If we had not come so far in our efforts
to break the planet, it would have been enough.
If I had only won the lottery, just once
it would have been enough.
If I only had the patience required to
let the dough rise on my back, or anywhere
it would have been enough.
If only I could have taken in all the outside cats
it would have been enough.
If only the Russians had not invaded Ukraine
it would have been enough.
If only no one had ever slapped anyone
in front of a billion people
it would have been enough.
If only my garden was filled with just the
intentional plants, it would have been enough.
If only Passover wasn’t canceled, again
because of East Coast Covid, it would have been enough.
If only the internet had been more definitive on
whether east coast should have been capitalized
it would have been enough.
If only the right words had come out of
everyone’s mouths and pens and tweets,
it would have been enough
If I only could have acknowledged I already have
everything I need, it would have been enough.
If only Elijah had finally come and
written this poem for me
it would have been enough.
If only we could move from never enough
to just enough, it would be enough.
It would be more than enough.
It would be plenty.
If only.
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.
