Manna, Again – A Poem for Tzav

…and Moses made the entire ram [go up in] smoke on the altar.

Ain’t no party like a priestly induction party –
You want to lead the people, you gotta get
with the insides of the ram.

The diaphragm, the liver and the kidneys.
Blood everywhere! Moses is the entertainment.
Causes the whole thing to go up in smoke!

He was the David Blaine of his day!
A pleasing fragrance for all!
I wonder if they think about this when they

do barbecue, homegrown smokers
in the backyard, you know they’re
thinking about the Bible when

the lines are out the front door
to sample the goods.
You can smell the holiness for miles!

Delicious, delicious! All for the Lord.
Not me, of course. I’m a vegetarian.
All I get is manna every single day

raining out of the sky (just six of those days.)
I appreciate the sustenance, but
couldn’t a soy chicken fall from above

maybe just on Thursdays? I promise I won’t
mix it with dairy if that makes a difference.
All I know is, no matter what connection

I have to the Cohen family, I’m going to
pass on this job opportunity.
I don’t think I can take the hazing.

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.