We’re Everywhere – A poem for Parsha Eikev

With seventy souls, Your forefathers descended to Egypt, and now the Lord, your God, has made you as the stars of heaven in abundance.
          Deuteronomy 10:22

My God, we’re everywhere!
Just like They said we would be!
Tooling around the promised land

disagreeing about how to run the place.
We’re there! In the streets of the Americas
making our presence known and

trying to stay below the radar when necessary.
What was that question? We’re the chosen people,
but every now and then could they choose someone else?

We’re everywhere! We’ve been putting up
synagogues anywhere a block could be carved out.
Some of them are older than old!

We were just in one in Florence, for Your sake!
We’ve got our names on all the best things.
The movies, the medicines, the equations

which make things happen. I mean not
just us, but for a people who started out
with a few dozen heading into Egypt,

we’ve sure made a mark. We’re everywhere!
Some of us covering all of our skin. Some
of us strapless in the Southern California sun.

Some of us separating our plates.
Some of us throwing cheese into the wind
while riding a cow into the Sabbath.

You can’t throw a stone without
hitting one of us (and some of them
keep throwing stones.)

We’re everywhere. This is the kept promise.
This is what we get when we do what we’re told.
This is us, the stars of heaven.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 27 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.”