Tashlich-casting away

Rosh Hashana-

water lapping jagged  rocks

wiping them clean

of dust and dirt

like a dog’s tongue 

licking with love

leaving  behind wonderful wetness

we empty pockets of leftovers

perhaps long forgotten

moments of coldness,

fear and untouchability

crumbs of callous forgetting

that she too hurts when ignored;

cast them away 

and fill the emptiness with human empathy

Yom Kippur-

Casting casts a frightening net of contrasting consequences

“Al Taslichaynu”-pleas of “Cast us not away”

pierce vaulted sanctuary ceilings

 I feel my “koiach”  seeping out,

of hardening arteries, wrinkled skin,

eyes filmed with fog

ears snatching  muffled 

 waves of sound

is it time to be cast away?

has the moment arrived for God to do some 

housecleaning , to clear away the clutter?

allow us our crumbs, all we have now

is the Rebbe’s ‘sherayim’

the Master’s remaining morsels

rendered holy by divine devotion

like shattered fragments in Your Holy Ark-

 we ask not for more.

not ready to submit 

to  tides that will cast us back into ocean’s depths

swallowed up by the beast of inevitability

a place of eternal darkness

not yet, not yet,

“Al taschlichaynu!”