I’m Done With It – A poem for Parsha Kedoshim

The stranger who sojourns with you shall be as a native from among you, and you shall love him as yourself

– Leviticus 19:34

I’m done with borders, with lines you
can’t cross without paperwork.

I’m done looking at others as if
I’m not looking in a mirror.

I’m done with mine and yours.
It’s all ours going forward.

I’m done with destruction.
It’s all creation going forward.

I’m done with going backwards
to history we should have learned from.

I’m done with innocent people
dead outside their own cars

for the crime of being who they are.
I’m done with divisive laws.

I’m done with flags, even as a crafts project.
Let’s plant flowers, instead of flags.

I think I’m okay with sports rivalry
but not if a win or loss gets cars turned over.

(and probably not if I have to sit through the game.)
I’m done spending time on anything

but peace, and laughter, and feeding all the bellies
with not just sustenance, but with flavorful joy.

We were all in Egypt and it’s time
we remember we’re not there any more.

I’m done with anything but freedom.
It’s time to act like it.

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.