My Doves Are Your Doves – A poem for Parsha Tazria-Metzora

He shall then perform [the service of] one of the turtle doves or of the young doves, from whatever he can afford
-Leviticus 14:30

I am not a communist, but I feel
everyone should have what they need
even if they can’t afford it.

I am not an anarchist though
I sometimes jaywalk when
no one is looking.

I am not an authoritarian, but
by God, my son will do what he’s told
or we will lock that Xbox down.

I am not a fascist.
Really. Not at all.

I am not a nationalist.
Call me a worldist if you’d like.
Or peopleist if that makes
more sense to you.

I am not a corporatist.
Whether you put plants into the ground
or put numbers into a thing
you should get to have the same dinner.

I am not an identity politician.
But if that’s how you identify
I’m all for it.

I am not a conservative.
Oh, the excesses, the indulgences
I’ve partaken in.

I may be a feminist.
It’s hard to tell.

I’m sort of a capitalist.
But I feel guilty about it.

I undoubtedly am a liberal
and a progressive – The things those
who aren’t those do often
hurt my stomach.

I am one who would rather
you keep your turtle doves.
Use them in your songs.
Let their songs distract you
from those things you are not.
May, like them, you fly.

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.