Passover 2020

I speak of faith but do not beg for miracles

I speak of love but will not touch your face

I speak of hope but do not plead for proof

I speak of justice but do not offer verdicts

I speak of atonement but do not loudly weep

I speak of rebirth but fear to fully submerge

I speak of belief but cannot imagine the light

I speak of future but do not count on dreams

I speak of redemption but do not feel its weight

I speak of rage but do not whisper its name

pharaoh slavery despair covid

Shema Shema Shema Shema

 

I speak of children but now my voice falters

How can I speak of children

Through the lens of this plague

I speak of love I speak of hope

I speak of justice I speak of atonement

I speak of rebirth I speak of belief

I cannot speak of future without a howl of rage

I speak of faith and I yearn for miracles

Redemption not for me

Redemption for the children

pharaoh slavery despair covid

Shema fervently Shema silently Shema chanted Shema forever and ever and ever

 

Amen

 

Just a thought 78

 

Artwork by Harriete Estel Berman, For the Child Who is Unable to Inquire, Thou Shalt Explain the Whole Story of Passover (Seder plate), courtesy of: commons.wikimedia.org

 

 

 

 

 

Trespass

The soles of my feet, my bared knees and forehead

Bend to the earth as do the strands of my hair

Trailing over my cheeks

 

The one good thing about being brought so low

Is not my humility, proofed by drops of my blood

Pooling in the dirt

 

But that I am left only one direction for movement

May the One Who abides in the High Heavens

Help me to rise

 

If I am unseen, ignored, or even abandoned

Perhaps I will be lifted by atonement of my sins

The flood of my tears

 

Sighted by bugs and spiders in their native land

No others will witness my remorse or their toil

More holy than mine

 

Just a thought 77

 

Painting Africa Landscape courtesy Pixabay