The I Forgot Sin – A Poem for Vayikra

If a person sins unintentionally
     –Leviticus 4:2

We’re not sure why our fourteen year old
didn’t do his math project last week.
He said he forgot which may or may not be true
and even though he’s going to get zero points for it
we’re going to make him do it anyway.

We’re really into the punishment fitting the crime
over here (or at least I’m learning to be as
you can’t just take his phone away for
every little thing) and we’re all hoping
lessons will be learned.

I’m glad we’ve moved on from the old ways
of dealing with sin as I can’t imagine telling him
oh you didn’t do your homework, well
take the fat surrounding the innards of a bull
and burn that as a tribute to your math teacher.
Don’t forget the kidneys!

We’re all vegetarians here and doing anything
involving blood and innards just doesn’t suit
our lifestyle. Plus bulls and goats are
so hard to come by here in Newhall.
We’re still bemoaning the empty mule farm
around the corner.

Bring back the mules we often yell as we drive by
on the way home from school where all math assignments
must be complete, even if they’re long overdue.
Even if fewer than zero points will be given.
Even if he has to put his phone in the other room
while doing them so, at least, there will be
no temptation to sin further.

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 26 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 “I Am Not Writing a Book of Poems in Hawaii” (Poems written in Hawaii – Ain’t Got No Press, August 2022) 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.