When two plates collide, one pushes into or underneath the other, buckling at the margins, and causing what's known as uplift to accomodate the extra crust.
They were the mummied heathbells of the past summer, originally tender and purple, now washed colourless by Michaelmas rains, and dried to dead skins by October suns.
Hard to imagine her legs once strong, the bones hard and parting water, clean sharp strokes, not bent and wrinkled like a baby, not drowning under the sticky yellow light.
One should not be alarmed to find an irregular pulse in cholera. When this sign is found together with a curled tongue and shriveled testicles, recovery is very improbable.