And on the Other 364 Days

by Janet Ruth Falon (Elkins Park, PA)

It’s all fine
and well
to stand up against oppression
when you’re wearing a costume
and alcohol has made you more yourself,
or maybe less so,
but for the other 364 days
you are commanded
— by The Book of What’s Right,
which all religions subscribe to —
to stand up against oppression
in your everyday clothes
and your sobriety
when you’re clear-headed
— and -hearted —
and can recognize the difference
between who should be blessed
and who should be cursed,
and to skim off Purim’s skin of hysteria
— like fat globules on soup —
and see the persecution that simmers, still, underneath.

Janet Ruth Falon, the author of The Jewish Journaling Book (Jewish Lights, 2004), teaches a variety of writing classes — including journaling and creative expression — at many places, including the University of Pennsylvania.  She leads a non-fiction writing group and works with individual students, and is continuing to write Jewish-themed readings for what she hopes will become a book, In the Spirit of the Holidays.