Wound Catalog - Margaret R. Akchin

for E.

Inspector, we found her half-drowned in a dark
river. At this point we don’t know why she kept fighting.

She seemed more scarred than hurt. We think it won’t be permanent.

Her lungs were saturated with Lethe-water, miraculously still pulling in
oxygen. Her rib cage was bruised, though

not fractured. A few more blows and it would have been.

Her wrists were broken, the type of break that commonly occurs
when they are violently wrenched off of something tall or high up.

forced to let go unwillingly. And on her hands there were frostbitten
toxin burns. Like she came in contact with something both

poisonous and cold. There was a mark on her neck, like a scar.
Tooth marks, almost imperceptible. A smear of blood.

Her lips were disintegrating shredding from excessive
glossing. She glossed over unimportant topics like

life and death and writing and safety and comfort and love. All

irrelevant. We dragged her out, barely alive; she didn’t want to leave.