This bruise won’t go is a knot of language and torn up fragments of paper that allude to the conflicts surrounding staying/going as they occur across different realms of human experience. The twisted terrain is suggestive of both the agitation of choice and the indelible marks left by the act of choosing. The ink on mending tape is tainted red, signifying the entanglements of pain hidden in psychological wounds, but if one looks closely, short phrases are also written across these threads. They read “just go,” “stay alive,” “go to hell,” and “stay back.” These ephemeral meanings reside somewhere between actions, suggestions and orders. They remind us of the possible paths we take and the difficult emotions that are associated with them.