Glassworks is a publication of Rowan University’s Master of Arts in Writing. Check out K’s poem “Nuisance Bleeding” on pages 48-49 of Glassworks Spring 2024 Issue 28.

From lookingglass: “Nuisance Bleeding” is a sequel companion piece to another one of my poem, “Mehndi Ceremony, Night Before our Wedding”, which describes the mehndi stain applied to my palms, hands, arms, and feet as part of my Hindu wedding celebration. Months after my wedding, my skin was stained again, this time with bruises that are a typical complication of the anticoagulant therapy prescribed to me following the closure of a hole in my heart that had caused me to have a stroke. I was struck by these parallels. In one cultural context, the marks on my skin symbolized the celebration of marriage; in another they prompted suspicion of domestic violence. The person who most cared for me, who tended to my little wounds with compassion and tenderness, was perceived by the external world as my potential abuser. I wanted this poem to explore the microaggressions my husband and I face in our interracial marriage as an injury for more pernicious than nuisance bleeding.