Parshat Sukkot: The Only Poem I’ve Ever Written

I have written only one poem in my life – if you can even call it that. It was back in 2009 and I called it, Sights, Sounds and Smells of Simchat Torah. So here it is again, with some contemporary updates. Chag Samayach.

 

Simchat Torah

Finished Again

The Five Books that is

From “…in the eyes of all Israel” straight away to “In the Beginning…”

Torah has no end

Torah has no beginning

It goes on and on and on and on

 

Dancing with the Torah

Sweaty and Hot

Used to worry about the Ceiling Fans whacking kids on their father’s shoulders

Not anymore – we got rid of them

The Ceiling Fans, not the Kids

 

Singing and Singing and Singing

Will Johnny C. lead us this year?

If not, will someone step up and take his place?

But who?

Nobody does it like Johnny C.

 

Kids inhaling Candy

As much as they want

Parents got no control or say

Not on this day

 

Remember the time the Hahn boy threw up a bag of red licorice?

What a sight

Jackson Pollack artwork

On the carpet

 

Some men forgetting the meaning of the day

Drinking in the back

Smoking outside – and not just Marlboros

Hey, maybe this year they won’t light up next to the AC intake

So Aish won’t smell like The Roxy Theatre

 

Auctions for various honours

Never made much

We aren’t Sephardim

Or Chabadniks

Maybe I should’ve become a Sephardi Chabadnick

But now, no worries

We got NYers

 

But the best part is not the end

And it’s not the beginning

But just before the end

When the little ones gather

For Kol HaNearim – The Voice of Children

 The Aliyah said on behalf of all the little kids

Boys and girls crowded under the Tallit

held aloft like a Wedding Canopy

blond ones

dark ones

dirty ones

pouty-eyed ones

some slurping their pollylops

some with runny noses

some chubby

some scrawny

All beautiful

Beautiful little Jewish children

 

And if you’ve never seen this in your life

Then you’ve never seen the soul of our People