Case Files

by Eileen Wang

PFA (Protection from Abuse)

Case Number: 24-03984

5/16

Plaintiff: Reyes, Mara

Defendant: Reyes, Julian

Describe the filing incident:

you & me &

this train.

over

&

over.

over & over.

5:00 pm—somewhere.

Defendant’s hands.

strangled blue. blue—

cornflowers pressed—

thumb, forefinger—splintered.

it’s always smelling cold on the train.

wet denim smears. headlights drag themselves open.

trees blur breathless out the window.

& everything

made of cornflower;

will breathe one day.

there are two people on the train who smell like

the same cup of coffee

& i am used to it.

i stopped speaking something soft.

stopped burning like skin & diaries & shared things.

skin / story / evidence.

the headlights forgot. the railroad forgot.

the rain numbs. the slush glows.

& there are two people on the train who smell like

the same cup of coffee.

cup. throat. evidence.

my lungs made peace with it

beside myself

beside

beside beside

not myself

not even

not ev-

hands

blue

strangled

overandoverandoverandover—

---

PFA (Protection from Abuse)

Case Number: 25-07783

7/09

Plaintiff: Fielding, Ava

Defendant: Mercer, Joel

see you

in the same light

that set five years ago

outside the local 7-11—

flies circle the trash can,

lazy.

slow.

somehow /

still alive.

faces stare

from car windows.

eyes—dead.

a kid drops a red slushie

no one turns.

it just bleeds.

1 pm.

Defendant pushed my head into the steering wheel.

security cameras catch

the road—

gray & yellow sun,

a bit of blue-black.

everything

stops moving because it

stopped breathing and is dead.

think you smell the metal

laced with something burning

slowly.

think you smell the trees

burning fast.

---

PFA (Protection from Abuse)

Case Number: 25-09253

10/23

Plaintiff: Devlin, Nora

Defendant: Devlin, Mark

Describe the filing incident:

10:15 am.

Defendant threatened to shoot me.

11:00 pm.

i screw up my face

before the shower.

trust too hard that it comes off.

still stuck to my shirt,

bleeding into the carpet.

a thing i can’t scrub.

won't

unstain.

staring at a stitch gone wrong.

watching it bleed,

feeding it blood.

drop

after

drop—

i wait for it to shudder.

hoping the skin will crawl

itself back.

half hope

it doesn't.

so i can point

& say—

look,

look what i survived.