Years ago like now

I had my benches and trees
nearby my workplace
Where I would have by brief leaves
in the middle of the day.

Herd immunity

a term now floating through me
sheep wake me from sleep
Covid-19, 6 months in
lying in bed, wondering...

In Hebrew, chemlah:
mercy, pity, compassion,
what we're grateful for.
Not that G-d returns our soul,
bur the emotion He brings.

Like fish in water
we need to be in the air
so that we can live.
And yet we cut ourselves off;
hold our breath, and hide inside.

Sometimes I wonder
if I'm more than the voices
inside of my head
Torah, Rabbis, Tradition,
teachers, parents, therapists

But for G-d alone/
And sometimes I don’t get Him/
Then I’m so alone/
Those times I’m lost from myself/
That’s the worst galus of all

-  December 22, 2009

Joy seems so challenged
during these cramped Covid times
as we live online
praying as the sirens pass
for neighbors dying en masse