Summer 2009
Abha Iyengar
Alison Eastley
Barton Smock
Bridget Gage-Dixon
Charles Reis
Cheryl Snell
Daniel Crocker
David Jordan
David Lawrence
Dennis Mahagin
Doug Ramspeck
Henry Louis Shifrin
John Sweet
Kathryn Jacobs
Lois P. Jones
Margaret Babbott
Mather Schneider
Richard Lighthouse
Roger Pfingston
Roy Lewis
Simon Perchik
Tim Kahl
Tony Leuzzi
Julie Steiner
Don Shaeffer
Steiner Interview
by Alex Nodopaka
Jennifer VanBuren
Jai Britton
Alex Nodopaka
Patrick Carrington
Mannequin Envy in memory of poet and artist Douglas Gamrath
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Abha Iyengar
Nothing Really
When she was cleaning the toilet, a little drop of water jumped up onto her face, from within the toilet bowl. It touched the side of her lip.
She spent the whole day, touching that side of her face, worrying about it, the side of her lip, some germ may have got in.
The area began to get red, she kept touching it on the train to work, rubbing it, though she had washed it with antiseptic before she left home. She returned from work, saw that it had become sore. She put an emollient, but could not stop worrying about it.
After two weeks, she had developed an itch behind her neck and on her scalp. She decided to go to the skin specialist. He said there was nothing wrong with her, but she needed to treat the boil on the side of the lip.
He gave her antibiotics. The boil did not subside. The itch grew.
Something bothering you? The skin doctor asked her when she visited him again. Worrying about your job, your son, something?
No. she said. There is nothing really on my mind. Nothing, really.
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Abha Iyengar is an internationally published writer and poet. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines and literary journals, such as the Chicken Soup series, Gowanus Books, Mannequin Envy, Conversation Poetry Quarterly, Nefarious Ballerina, Nothing but Red, etc. She is a Kota Press Poetry Anthology contest winner. Her story, ‘The High Stool’ was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. She is a member of The Poetry Society of India and ‘Riyaz’ Writer’s Group at The British Council, New Delhi. She writes articles on health and spirituality for several Indian magazines. She is Fiction Editor with Frog Books, Mumbai. Abha has recently produced a poem film ‘Parwaaz’ (flight) that is being screened at international film festivals. Her website and blog |
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