Small lines on her knuckles

From sharp wooden siding

On exterior garage walls

Learning to ride her bike

In ever widening circles

Amoeba-like masses on her knees

Going over the handlebars

Attempting to avoid head-on collision

With another biker

Riding like the wind

Her mother

Picked embedded stones and gravel

Slowly, painstakingly

Out of wounds

Tears rolled down her face

Half-moon on her right wrist

Middle school shop class

Claw end of a hammer

Inexpertly trying

To remove nail from board

Coming perilously close

To an artery, making her queasy

Multiple puncture wounds

And teeth marks

Inside of her wrist from

Frightened cat stuck

Under a piece of furniture

Valuable lesson learned

Thin bumpy necklace

Partial thyroidectomy

She started making up

Colorful stories about it

When ignorant young women

Pointed, whispered

In subway stations

Her favorite: a knife fight

Two C-section scars

Intersecting, twisted vines

Remarkably short in length

Given…