Free Lemons! – A poem for Parsha Ki Teitzei

When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you desire, until you are sated …
          Deuteronomy 23:25

In a famous The Simpsons episode
(famous to me because I remember it)
Homer is turned away from the

all you can eat buffet after the restaurant
realizes they weren’t prepared for
his appetite. He says, as he’s

dragged out of the dining room
long after the restaurant has closed
but the sign said ‘all you can eat.’

Can you imagine if we took advantage
of what was promised? We could
wander into our neighbor’s yard

and eat all we want. (While on
the premises…it’s very specific
that we can’t cart anything away.)

Is this limited only to food or are
anyone’s nearby possessions fair game?
Can I head to the neighbors

and enjoy all the streaming content
I want? How about their underwear?
(If I promise to only wear it

on the property?) Is our very concept
of ownership at question? Or,
better yet, shouldn’t it be?

Especially when so many have
so little. I keep hearing that
billionaires could end poverty

without changing their lifestyles?
Why don’t they? I read another article
which explains why the don’t.

But I prefer the message of the first one.
I’ve got a lemon tree
in my back yard.

It gives me more than I need.
The gates are unlocked.
Have at it.

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