How To Break An Arm - A Love Letter

By Pierakis Pieri

I.

My son, this list I give to you

is written with my trembling hands.

When they come with papers stamped,

when they speak of duty and of glory,

remember this mother’s final gift—

a love letter for your life.

II.

I search at dawn while Putin speaks

arm + break + home + methods + painless

My screen glows with desperate knowledge.

Three hundred thousand men they want,

but you, my son, will not be one.

Better broken bones than no return.

III. 

Know Your Limits

Ice, smooth shoes, pocketed balance—Pain: 6/10

Fall, outstretched, wrist bears all—Pain: 7/10

Chair, unstable, tools in hand—Pain: 8/10 (Too risky?)

Door, frame trap, extended arm—Pain: 9/10

Car, dashboard grip, no airbags—(Is this… love?)

IV.

Get It Right The First Time

Timing is everything—winter legitimizes slips

Hospital shift changes: 7 a.m., busiest period

Pre-establish online research: accident prevention

Pack spare bandages—some cracks don’t take

Rehearse your story: details matter under stress

V.

She sits beside the hospital bed, 

counts the ticks of machinery.

The white cast gleams under fluorescent light—

their shared conspiracy of silence.

Her thumbprint left in dried adhesive—

the only part of her that dares to stay.

VI.

Outside, mobilization continues.

Another name struck from the roster:

EXEMPT: Physical Disability - Permanent?

Salvation through self-harm.

The cost of freedom measured in calcium,

in the angle of a mother’s lowered head.

VII.

His cast becomes a canvas of QR codes,

bit.ly/break-clean scraped into plaster.

What began as Google data—

“how to break arm” spiking at 4 a.m.—

now carries names and faces—

tinyurl.com/fx-guide (404: page removed)

VII.

In Silicon Valley, analysts track the pattern:

search terms cascading across eleven time zones.

A glitchy GIF of wrist splints loops on sidebar ads.

Engineers debate fracture tutorials: violence or aid?

Their algorithms map resistance in broken bones,

love letters that break arms to save lives.

By Pierakis Pieri