It Takes as Long as It Takes – A poem for Parsha Naso

But to the sons of Kohath he did not give [wagons], for incumbent upon them was the work involving the holy [objects], which they were to carry on their shoulders.
–Numbers 7:9

Everything is faster than it used to be.

Instead of wagons, there are cars and planes.
Instead of letters, there are emails.

Instead of emails, there are texts.
Instead of meetings, there are Zooms.

Instead of Zooms, there is this could have been an email.
Instead of family meals, there is fast food.

Instead of dining in there is driving through.
Instead of paper tickets, there are QR codes.

Instead of long-form entertainment, there are TikToks.
Instead of steamboats, there are speedboats.

Instead of steam engines, there are bullet trains.
Instead of coffee, there are energy drinks.

Instead of newspapers, there are Tweets.
Instead of slow cooking, there are microwaves.

Instead of microwaves, there are air fryers.
Don’t get me started on the broken promise of the Instant Pot.

The sons of Kohath weren’t given wagons to carry our holy objects.
They needed to feel this weight on their skin

in case anyone forgot the weight of our burden.
You could ask them and they’d tell you.

This is holy.
It takes as long as it takes.

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 27 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 Low Country Shvitz” (Poems written in Georgia and the Carolinas – Ain’t Got No Press, May 2023) 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.