LEATHER

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife
garments of skins and clothed them.

—Genesis 3:21

Seventeen, I found in an outlet leather store                                           a black lambskin jacket— cafe collar and a red and white racer stripe                                         down the right sleeve. I tried it on and it fit like nothing I had ever                                         worn before. The animal fabric, bespoke as a blessing,                                                laid over my shoulders, and the lining was quilted the color                                        of covenantal blood. I stood in the mirror and thought of the creature                                               who died to make it, pictured it sliding from the ewe onto a bed of straw,                                               innocent and rising shakily to totter to the slaughter. I bought it.                                          Stepped into the street one moment and three-hundred bucks later—broke,                                                     and for the first time not simply wearing clothes, but clothed,                                                          knowing soon I too would bleed to leave something beautiful.