ON FINDING JESUS TOTE BAGS AT BRANDY MELVILLE

by Lisa Seidenberg 

The Jesus totes were hung

from a bare nail in the store

among the tables of baby tees 

and short shorts seen 

by tweens who pause purposefully

at the offerings of each station

Not a full body Jesus 

Not a loving Jesus—

It was only the head

tilted slightly—quizzically even—

sporting the brambled crown 

of thorns he wore 

with signature aplomb

An odd sight, nevertheless

as Brandy Melville is a brand

for the body-con set

with its “one-size-fits-most" 

if you are young and female 

with a bikini-ready silhouette.

With doleful eyes cast downward, 

the tote bag Jesus regards 

the teetering mountains of

drawstring sweatpants

In soporific shades

of gray and blue and sand

A fitting attire for the desert breeze 

of Bethlehem 

or the Sea of Galilee

One wonders what thoughts 

might cross his mind, aware 

that Brandy M permits no returns 

of any kind? 

Lisa Seidenberg is writer and filmmaker and a Pushcart nominee (2025). Her writing has been published in Rattle, Asymptote Journal, Gyroscope Review, Rain Taxi, Third Wednesday Magazine,  Anti-Heroin Chic, Atticus Review, The New Verse News, One Art: A Journal of Poetry, Delta Poetry Review, and New England Review;  she is also a poetry reviewer for the Whale Road Review. Her documentaries and experimental films screened at international film festivals inc. Sundance, Berlin, Athens and London. 

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