Jericho Walk
by Maren Tirabassi, UCC Minister

I return to the Jericho walk,
in Manchester,
having not been well enough
for a couple months,
and it feels like home —
this moving vigil, silent, but with signs
and grateful waving for drivers
who honk their support.We travel around the large block
of the federal building
where people we love and
some people we have never met
come to discover
if this week they’ll be deported.We walk around seven times
hoping the walls
will come tumbling down —around this place
that sends into certain danger
kind, hard-working,
tax paying, family-loving people
who contribute so much
to our communityOften there is a shofar
to remind us just how deep
are the cracks
in the foundation of a country
that unwelcomes the world,but today there is a flautist
playing “Siyahamba”
over and over again —
walking
in the light of God,and I think of that less-military
Jericho story —
the one that defines neighbor asanyone from anywhere
who stops to help vulnerable ones
fallen on the side of the road.