All the Deserts We’ve Loved Before – A poem for parsha Eikev (Aliyah 1)

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You shall be blessed above all peoples

I don’t want to be blessed above all other people
I just want to make sure my mortgage gets paid
and everyone has enough to eat.

And when I say everyone I mean everyone.
Not just me and us who built pyramids in one desert
wandered around a second one for forty years

and are about to make a third one bloom.
I mean all the ones who we’ve been given the
strength to defeat, whose kings have been

driven into our hands, whose Gods have been
un-God-ified, whose names have been erased
into less than dust

while we’ve been eating meat that’s come out of
our noses and whatever comes forth from the
mouth of the Lord.

Because, as it turns out, it’s all one desert
and it’s getting hotter. It’s getting so
unbearably hot.

These poems are offered free for your enjoyment. If you use them as part of an event, meeting, educational or liturgical setting, please consider tipping the author.

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