John 6
What I really need to know is how the callouses
blossomed on your fingers. I want to feel
the bristle of your beard on my cheek,
place my hands around the feet
of the man who feeds. You know
why I’ve come here: to make the impossible
become miraculous, to turn your vengeance
into grace, to learn the difference between bread
and sustenance, to be the bride for whom you’ll die.
How can you bear to know these things?
Who can accept this? Lord, to whom can we go?
Give me this bread in flesh and blood always.
(I think I like this version better, but since it is late and it is draft two, I decided to save both.)
Published by Sarah M. Wells
Sarah M. Wells is an award-winning author of seven books: To Say One Million Times, WOW: Essays on Awe, Faith, and Family from America's Great Outdoors (and Some Hotel Rooms) - forthcoming in 2026, Ordinary Time: Meditations from the In-Between (2024), The Family Bible Devotional: Stories from the Gospels to Help Kids and Parents Love God and Love Others (2022), American Honey: A Field Guide to Resisting Temptation (2021), Between the Heron and the Moss (2020), The Family Bible Devotional: Stories from the Bible to Help Kids and Parents Engage and Love Scripture (2018), and Pruning Burning Bushes (2012). Sarah's work has been honored with four Pushcart Prize nominations, and her essays have appeared in the notable essays list in the Best American Essays 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
Sarah is the recipient of a 2018 Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. She resides in Ashland, Ohio with her husband and three children.
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Sarah Marie Wells 