I am one of those people who collects bruises like old bottlecaps.
I count them from time to time, but I can never remember where
I got them.
Waiting for bread to toast, I slapped a knife against my thigh,
marveling in the way it rang like a tuning fork. When the toast
popped up, I looked at my leg and saw there was a huge red welt
just starting to bruise.
They only hurt once I've discovered them.
You poked the knife-bruise and asked, "Who beat you up?" but didn't
wait long enough for me to summon the laughter to say that I'd done
it to myself. You moved on to the next one, dragging your finger like
you were following some yellow brick road, playing Candyland and
winning.
A Pleiades's above my ankle, a crescent shape below my knee.
There was one small circle in the middle of my toe that you wondered
about, and neither of us could imagine how I'd done it, so you just
laughed at me and tickled my feet like some old husband.
Soon you get bored with the bruises and you move on to the tic-tac-
toe grids on my knees from the pool tiles. You write your name in my
arm with your fingernail because of the way even light scratches
immediately become red and raised. I made up a word for it and
you believe me like it was some sort of real medical condition.
Somehow my face hovers in between a real smile and an aching grimace,
so when you look up at me, you put my face in your hands and repeat
my name.
I must be your favorite curiosity.