{"id":14091,"date":"2026-02-22T20:55:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=14091"},"modified":"2026-02-22T20:55:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:55:57","slug":"the-female-body-has-ways-to-try-and-become-closed-nina-smilow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=14091","title":{"rendered":"THE FEMALE BODY HAS WAYS TO TRY AND BECOME CLOSED – Nina Smilow"},"content":{"rendered":"I was very young when I was young.  \n \nAll eyes. \nMirrors that consumed \nthe world.  \n \nYour mother told you \nI would have to be careful.\n \nShe meant with boys, \nmen, eventually. You told me,\nthe first time it was a compliment, \nit grew with me into a warning. \n \t\nI don\u2019t know if she knew I\u2019d be pretty. \nYou didn\u2019t. \nI\u2019m not blaming you. \nI know she never let you forget \nshe saw you as a disappointing mirror. \n \nI try not to blame me. \n \nI will try not to apologize for calling myself \npretty because I do not think it\u2019s the why. \n \n(But maybe I would not want a pretty daughter.) \n \nA piece of fruit \ndangling, nearly snapping \nfrom its branch, wants to be eaten, \nsurely. Could not be meant to fall \nuntouched, dissolve, \nslowly decay until it meshes \nwith the deep earth and becomes \nnew life. \n \nI was raised to be so polite. \n \nBut I am a body, which asserts itself \nin blood, bile, salt, and tangy sweet. \nRude flavors. \n \nI think you knew she meant \nI cannot fade into dirt. \n \n \n\n

\"\"Nina Smilow is a writer of all genres. Her work can be found in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Porridge Magazine, Pacifica Literary Review,<\/em> and Literary Mama<\/em>. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence\u2019s MFA and splits her time between Portland, OR and New York.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was very young when I was young.     All eyes. Mirrors that consumed the world.     Your mother told you I would have to be careful.   She meant with boys, men, eventually. You told me, the first time it was a compliment, it grew with me into a warning.   I [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-14091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-art-by-michelle-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14091"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14156,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14091\/revisions\/14156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}