A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
Scapegoat
Jews didn’t invent the idea.
Symbolically blaming a goat
and sending it off into the wilderness
may have roots older than the Bible.
But we did record the ritual
from our Temple days
and later in our histories
of inquisition, pogroms,
and trains to Auschwitz.
Fun facts:
Goats are resilient creatures.
Good climbers. Heat tolerant.
Adaptable to deserts or mountains.
Banish a goat to barren lands,
chances are it will survive.
So is that why
for centuries
they have always
chosen us
to be the goat?
Jacqueline Jules
Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman's Broken String, winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press, and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 journals. You can find out more at www.jacquelinejules.com.
