End-of-the-Week Excerpt: from "70 Faces:Torah Poems"

from Rachel Barenblat's 70 Faces:Torah Poems, here is

OFFERING (BO)

We shall not know with what we are to worship the Lord until we arrive there. —Exodus 10:26

Maybe God wants goats
scruffy and bleating.
The richest colors we know.
The taste of coffee, dark and smooth.

Maybe God wants smoke
from the trees our children will fell.
The songs we sing
when it's late and no one can hear.

The Holy One will tell us
what sacrifices are required,
blood or water poured on the altar
sluicing down to the earth below.

Does God want our grief?
Hopes raised, then dashed
like pears against a rock.
Maybe God wants us not to give up.

We must bring all that we are
so when that Voice speaks
we can open our chests
and pull out what's inside.