1. Swell: fluids rush in panic, raise the skin
like a flag, damage still unassessed
2. Purple: t-shirt logo wearing of pain, most
celebrity, most sympathy for self
3. Blue: first layer under, uglier, sign of longer
lasting mark
4. Green: usually on the edges only, ghost
sleeping under your skin
5. Brown: dead blood vessels dissolving,
novelty gone, even you don’t want to look
6. Orange: almost gone enough to be rubbed
off with spit and thumb, will it away
7. Yellow: untraceable outlines only faith
remembers, sing it a lullaby, let it go undreamt
First published in On the Grid Zine.
Sarah Thursday 