May I Suggest? — A poem for Parsha Nasso (Aliyah 3)

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Command the children of Israel to banish from the camp all those afflicted . . .

No one understands a quarantine
better than everyone alive today

But it’s a sensitive subject to
send people away when there are

those who have stated they’d rather
all of us be in the sea.

May I suggest a hospital tent?
May I suggest we take all the walls

and not give them back?
May I suggest we remember

the dirt was here before our buildings?
May I suggest we let the doctors

take a look before we send anyone away?
May I suggest the property laws

may be binding, but before they were
written down, our first guy

opened up his tent? May I suggest
beating hearts and hunger

take precedence over technicalities?
May I suggest tearing down

is the weapon of the one who
feels they’re owed something?

May I suggest, everyone gets to go
on the forty-year walk, and when we

get to where we’re going, we do more
than care for the trees of the people

who are already there? If you take
even one of my suggestions, we’ll

really be going somewhere and I’ll
be ready to make my offering to the One.

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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