Patterns of Life and Death II

 
Blood and Light
A high-pitched child’s scream fills the marketplace, and people yell for a healer.

The market woman looks around in fear.
Her young daughter gone.

She runs toward the source of the scream, and I follow.
A crowd circles a booth that sells sharp metal tools, and long knives.

The girl has fallen against a knife, and cut her upper arm half off.
The artery squirts blood all around, and the arm hangs limp, as bones, muscles, and nerves are all cut.
The bleeding must be stopped soon, or the girl will bleed to death.
The arm … Read more