Some of you are already aware of Rick Lupert as the mastermind behind Poetry Super Highway and the Cobalt Café reading series. He’s a Los Angeles-based poet who has published probably dozens of books, all of them genuinely entertaining. He was one of my first friends in the LA poetry scene when I lived out there in the late 90s.

Here’s one of his recent poems, “The Birds I May Not Eat,” which appears in a couple of other places online, including Jewish Poetry.

And to everyone observing Passover this month, Chag Pesach Sameach!

“The Birds I May Not Eat” — A poem for Parsha Re’eh (Aliyah 4)

“You may eat every clean bird.”
Deuteronomy 14:11

As a vegetarian, most of this text
does not apply to me, or, as the Rabbis say
my thoroughness is to be commended.

As a reader of Torah, and occasional
conversationalist with Rabbis, it’s important to note
they may not have actually said that.

I may eat every clean bird, but
regardless of whether they’ve bathed
I choose not to.

I may not eat an Eagle.
America, America, America!
I may not eat a bat.

And I won’t. They’re the cutest
of the flying mammals. Just turn them
right side up and their little furry faces

rival any puppy, or at least hamster.
I may not eat a pelican, and why would I?
The taste of a long neck has never been my thing.

I may not eat a raven, and I wouldn’t dare!
I wouldn’t want to anger their community.
I don’t know who would dream of eating an ostrich.

The looks they give you in every situation –
The guilt would be irreconcilable.
The stork too…they do so much work

propagating our species, it wouldn’t feel right
to have them for dinner. Then there are the birds
I’d never heard of, but the bird watching community

would be horrified if I even considered it –
The hoopoe and the atalef – how about the ossifrage?
Who are these birds?!

I may not eat the magpie or the cormorant –
I’m glad to see the owl on the list.
They know so much more than I ever will.

***

Rick Lupert has been involved with poetry since 1990. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, he created PoetrySuperHighway.com and hosts the weekly Virtual Cobalt Cafe series. His 25 collections of poetry include “God Wrestler” and “The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express.” He edited the anthologies “A Poet’s Siddur,” “A Poet’s Haggadah,” “The Night Goes on All Night,” and “Ekphrastia Gone Wild.” He works as a music teacher and graphic designer in Newhall, California. His websites are www.poetrysuperhighway.com and www.jewishpoetry.net.