Israeilte Poem

Some truths cannot be killed

Like the sole existence of our Glorious G-d

This world’s Glorious G-d

And my personally inescapable truth

That I will never be one thing only

For years and years I tried to simplify my existence

Reduce and capture my identity

Trap it in a box, in a corner, so that existence would be easier

But thus was like the lie of the Satan

The expression of man is only as G-d wills

Drops of Israel and a sea of America

Blue, white, and red jumbled onto my heart

One ear was Hebrew and the other English

And yet my earlobe was Arabic, my other will be Aramaic soon

Mixtures of Mishnaic tongue – multicultural, multilingual – oh G-d, what to be?!

Mizrachi Israel, at 22 became religious and picked up my father’s nusach

Tongue stayed Hebrew, prayers Ashkenaz, so many sound waves and frequencies

The only thing that remained, and upon which all these things stood

Like the world that stands on Torah, Avoda, and Gmilut Chassidim

Scratch all falsity with frustrated and determined nails

Teeth clenched, heart determined to remove this silk screen, this smoke screen

Shatter the glass like the vessels

Withdraw the lie like tzim-tzum

Light up my mind like “and He saw that it was good”

Spark up my heart like clashing swords

Lift up my soul like Abraham’s eyes to the mountains on the third day

Climb this Wall, we’ll get to the top and remove all falsity, all false domes

From under the dome of the sky under His Home in the Sky, His Place, the Place

Go to the place that I will show you

There I discovered the only Truth seeping from Mouth of the Kadosh Baruch Hu

Grab His Tzitzis, climb up His Commandments, up the Neck our Father

Behind His Head to the Nape of His Neck, sit on the Knot of His T’fillin

Ride this world out over the seas and landscapes and above the waves

That push us from our destination

G-d fill this land with Your Glory

G-d, Jews, Torah – the only Holy Trinity I know

In my heart I found an Israelite, the remnant of a Hebrew

In my eyes I found the image of a Temple

In my sides I found a soul with a Jew’s expression

I looked north, south, east, and west inside – this is what G-d gave me

G-d, protect us – our enemies meet each other to plan our destiny

But people make plans and You laugh

Laugh at them, G-d

Wipe the evil smiles off their faces, strike them on the cheek and break their teeth

So that they cannot hackle evil laughs

Let them become stuck in the mud between the walls

And we will all run to the Wall

Which will become multiplied into Walls

The smoke will not be from bombs in shops but a smell pleasing to You

I am like a full, rich, steaming glass of coffee