Fixing the Jericho Road: poem by Lara Dolphin

(road construction, image by Gerhild Klinkow, on Pixabay)

“I don’t want to pick up anyone else, along this Jericho Road;

I want to fix… the Jericho Road.”  (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Fixing the Jericho Road

is going to take some doing

filling holes and ruts

removing slough and berm

making it straight and smooth

widening it and paving it with asphalt

adding signs and markers

installing guardrails and lights

providing places to sit and get shade

building bathrooms and water fill stations

going the extra mile to create an audio tour

re-forming the path and

transforming the journey

so laborers and pilgrims

neighbors and friends

may travel in safety

only then will those who climb

from Jericho to Jerusalem

no longer need the goodwill of strangers

and every footfall shall at last resound

compassion, compassion, compassion

(Previously published in St. Andrew’s Poetry Contest Anthology, July 2024)

____________________________

A native of Pennsylvania, Lara Dolphin 

is an attorney, nurse, wife, and mother

of four. Her chapbooks include: 

‘In Search of The Wondrous Whole’ 

(Alien Buddha Press), 

‘Chronicle of Lost Moments’ 

(Dancing Girl Press), and 

‘At Last a Valley’ (Blue Jade Press). 

June 2025 issue