Does This Count? – A poem for Parsha Naso by Rick Lupert

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.

Share this poem:

Naso — count

If I chose the life of a Nazir
whether temporary or forever
how would I do with the restrictions?


No grape products –

Would it count if I found myself
in a vineyard? I live in California
and you can’t run a red light
in this town without finding yourself
in a vineyard.

I went to a wine tasting recently.
Is this restriction retroactive?


No cutting hair –

I wish I knew about this in the 90s
when I had the confidence to
strut around in a mullet.
I would have been a natural.
Does a mullet count?
Are people shipwrecked
on desert islands automatically
Nazarites? I hate shaving.
Sign me up for the holiness.


Avoid dead bodies –

I assume this means human dead bodies,
as house fly carcasses are everywhere.
Do they count? As the weather heats up,
I dispose of their bodies like an insect mafia.
I try to help their community.
I hold out my finger for the living ones
hoping they’ll get the message
and fly on so I can walk them outside
and let the whole world be their house.
Does this count? Oh, God – separate me
from the defilements of my days before today.
I’m ready to be holy.

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.

Share this poem: