Gleanings

*dedicated to the millions who need unemployment benefits reinstated for Christmas
*dedicated to the immigrants in this country who need to be treated humanely in the process of achieving citizenship

--------------/Gleanings: The Thoughts Of A Homeless Man Living In Israel Under Mosaic Law

In Egypt they said
starving men often died with their eyes open
their last breath spent waiting for relief
a redress
watching for any hint of sympathy from their taskmasters
pitiless
rats crawling on cadavers often left to rot
with no proper burial and nothing to attenuate the stench
of the grievous lack of human compassion
indifferent to the decomposition of a man's hopes, dreams
and his potential
dried blood was the only burial marker his family ever saw
memorials of flowing tears a makeshift séance
the sole anchor to reality in the passing years
to authenticate his existence and prove the unremitting heavy sadness
wasn't a psychosis (collectively experienced)
or mental oppressive tactic hammered down from Pharaoh
derivative of a philosophy of devaluing a race, a nation of proud people
assessing them as means of production
and deficit reduction, necessary evils of class status,
servants to the aristocracy
and these are the tales that keep me up at night
staring at the glowing clouds buffeting the moon
from view
attempting to muster enough strength to reprimand
the tears that well up inside me
singing Moses' song of praise:
(The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice; a
God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He)
recalling how the poor were delivered from their oppressors
evil, unjust, callous
by way of mighty miracles and curses on the cruel
and I pray each morning for just one more chance
each day for sympathy of the harvest
fallen fruit
gleanings of grace
tenderness in travails
reaching in remorse
solace for those slinking in the shadows suffering in shame
help for the hungry
welfare from the wealthy
love for the languishing
kindness for those killed in spirit
pittance from those in power
so that I can die with my eyes closed

(one day)

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"Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 19:9-10)

If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don't leave him, you shall surely help him with it. (Exodus 23:5)

"For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land." (Deuteronomy 15:11)

"And if a stranger sojourn with you in your land, you shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwells with you shall be as one born among you, and you shall love him as thyself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: 'I am the Lord your God.'" (Leviticus 19:33-34)