“Because Jesus Loved Me”
-Thomas Cochran-
I searched for nail marks
on my hands and feet
and looked for a spear
scar on my side.
Finding nothing
I went to the shed
and gathered means
to set things right.
First I pierced a foot,
drove a 10d spike
nearly halfway in
while my dog whined.
After that I tore my side
with a saw blade and believed
the favor returned
to Him who bled for me.
On the way to the doctor’s
they knew better
than to ask why.
I was nine–
I got sick but never wept.
Thomas Cochran was raised in Haynesville, Louisiana. His writing
credits include the novels Roughnecks (Harcourt) and Running the Dogs
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Poetry under his name has recently begun to
appear here and there. He currently lives in rural northwest Arkansas, a
schoolteacher by trade.
