Lip

My father said it was my mother's fault: maybe something she ate, or a failure of attitude. He would not come visit us in the hospital. The plastic surgeon who stitched it up said I could have a free nose job when I got older.

Height

"You people are all pretty short."

Knuckle

Three layers of triangular plastic held together with blue- and orange-colored glue, forming the blade of a toy dagger. As I sanded the sharp edges on the disc sander a classmate told me I was doing it wrong. He took the thing from me and began to sand the wrong side. I went to grab it back from him, felt (and heard) a sharp short buzz, and yanked my hand back. An oval of skin on the knuckle of my index finger had been removed, exposing white bone beneath. There was little pain or blood. When the teacher examined the wound he said, "Ooh, that's a nasty one."

Eyebrow

"You got in a knife fight."

"Your mother cut you with a piece of glass."

My Best Feature

When I make a fist they pop and swell beneath the skin of my forearms, blue and river-thick. Emerging just inside the elbow, they branch and define, carving the flesh into upper and lower; the hand is a delta, a rivulet feeding each finger.

After two days sick I staggered into the college infirmary, nauseous and dizzy. They put me in a bed in a dim room and closed the door. Could I have some water? I asked the first nurse I saw. She nodded and smiled. An hour later another nurse came in. I asked her for water. Sure, she said, and closed the door. Another hour passed. Then a doctor came in and told me I was dehydrated.

The doctor left and a third nurse came in. Her hair was short and a steely blond and she was probably in her thirties, although what does a nineteen-year-old know about thirty. While all the others had spoken in normal voices, hers was lowered to match the low light of the room. She lifted my left arm and ran her hand along the inside of it, probing with her fingers. Her eyes widened. Do you work out? she asked. No, I said. Why do you ask? Her voice dropped even lower. You have great veins, she said, tracing them from my elbow to my wrist.

Wrists

Heels of the hands together, hard, elbows out, fingers pointed upward. Then rotate the fingers downward, pivoting around the wrists, feeling stretch in the forearms, prayer reversed.

Ultrasound

Right side of scrotum and contents of scrotal sac. Results: grossly normal.

Legs

The concrete floor of the indoor track was cracked and canted toward one end. We were told shin splints were little muscle tears, though they are really inflammations of connective tissue. My knee popped and cracked so I wore a brace, black and red like Michael Jordan's. Stretch after warming up, they told us, not cold.

What She Said

"The difference between us is that you see your body as an instrument of pleasure."

Ankles

I went up for the ball and came down hard on the side of my ankle. Two days later, on crutches in the third-floor school library when the fire alarm went off. The teacher told me to hop down the stairs. As I reached the second landing I fell and had to be carried out by two female classmates. The next week I came back to school in a wheelchair and air casts to take finals. Our neighbor lent me his cane, black and white-tipped like a vaudeville prop.

Hands

"You have the most exquisite hands."

Left Ear

Have you gone to a lot of loud rock concerts? Played with firecrackers?

Turning the head to the left and back makes gravity seem to swing upwards. Brain scan: grossly normal.

Fingernails

Deep red when wearing heels, dark blue when not.