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Unintended Proxy – A poem for Parsha Devarim

Them. As in the other...
[additional-authors]
July 31, 2025

Do not fear them, for it is God, your God, who is fighting for you. ~ Deuteronomy 3:22

Them.
As in the other.
They’re on the
other side of the river
right now.

Someone is
fighting them – not me
I’m a gajillion miles away.
So I have no fear as
I am being fought for.

Whether I want it or not.

It’s happening everywhere.
People asking me
not to have fear while
they scoop up
the other.

I’m tending to my
livestock and that
one rabbit in the backyard
as if the other aren’t
being tended to.

This is not the story
I want to tell. This is not
what I want them to do.
But they are doing it
for me, with no
explicit instructions
from me.

Except this old text
in this old book
which predates all the
other books they’re burning
but which are
easier to read.


Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 29 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Visit him at

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