Where Death Is Not an Is
        after Brian Henry

I met Jesus the next day
at the Life Cafe. "Call me
J now," he said. "People
lock me up when I say

I am God" He pulled
back his sleeves to show
the marks on his arms
from recent shots. I asked

what I could do. "Just lie
low," he said between
bites of falafel. "Dead
is the way the world wants

us. People hate to feel
alive." We ate in silence
for a while. Then I asked,
"What happens to us?"

He wiped his young hands
and stood to leave. "We are
finished," and kissed my cheek.
I put my hand on his arm

and told him the scars would be
beautiful when they healed.

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Copyright © 2013 Katie Manning All rights reserved
from The Gospel of the Bleeding Woman
Wipf and Stock Publishers
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission