The walls of Jericho

Standing at the well,

clutching my pitcher,

I try everything I can

   think of

Custom: yours do not

   associate with mine

Tradition: are you greater

  than the ancestors

Material: spare me

   from my work

Theology: is it better

   to worship in Jerusalem

each block, each wall

I erect, each obstacle

my words create,

he knocks down,

without effort

He strips my defenses

He destroys my resistance

He sears my soul

   with the hot knife

   of his words

His voice tears through me

   leaving me spent

   yet alive

He circles the walls of Jericho

  blowing his horns

He comes from the chosen

   to save the unchosen

   to save the rejected

   to save the despised

I tremble.

His words shatter the glass,

shards falling to the stone,

shattering, leaving slivers

and pointed sand

beneath my feet

and his own

Painting: The taking of Jericho, gouache on board (1896-1902) by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (or follower); Jewish Museum, New York.