“How We Love” by Lauren Brodowski

Sometimes I like to reimagine religion

and the stories I was told as a child, so

that it fits the way I understand the world

now.  I tell myself it happened like this:

Every day after the cross, Jesus would only

wear long sleeves. The kind that were oversized

and covered your palms and hands. He wore gloves

in the summertime, was uncomfortable whenever

someone asked about his scars, kept his clothes on

at swimming parties, became a janitor because the

uniform covered everything. He was a quiet boy.

Mostly kept to himself. Would only talk to people

like his mother or his therapist.

When he would visit Mary, he would always pull his

sleeves down a little longer, cross his arms a little tighter,

always keep hands in pockets, never wanting her to see the places

where he bled. Always telling her that it wasn’t so bad. That he

barely even thinks about it anymore. Listen, you and I both know,

This, too, is how we love.

Lauren Brodowski is a poet, an artist, a musician, and a lover of all giant dog breeds (particularly newfies).  She is studying to become a therapist, which is to say that she is in love with feelings and an advocate of the human heart. She recently moved to Colorado from California where she now spends her free time hiking with her dog and running around in the snow with him while deer watch them together in the moonlight.  

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