{"id":4080,"date":"2016-04-11T13:06:37","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T13:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=4080"},"modified":"2016-04-11T13:06:37","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T13:06:37","slug":"secrets-or-how-i-fall-in-love-mehrnoosh-torbatnejad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=4080","title":{"rendered":"Secrets Or How I Fall In Love &#8211; Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The butter slices, avocado pieces<br \/>\nfall into his lips, slide into the song<br \/>\nof sealed eyes humming; I stay<br \/>\nonly until I know which of the two<br \/>\nis doing the seducing<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nSimple things, like spring sweat<br \/>\nhands meeting when motorists<br \/>\nshow no mercy; thank you<br \/>\nfor quickening my step, sparing me<br \/>\nfrom limbs flying aimlessly<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nHow a coarse, blunt voice,<br \/>\nmade rough by virile<br \/>\nconditioning, softens<br \/>\nin the trap of casual inquiry:<br \/>\ntell me, how is your mother doing<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI even split my name<br \/>\nwhen he asked for meaning,<br \/>\nlike a stubborn branch<br \/>\nI snapped it against my kneecap,<br \/>\nspilled a history of intemperance,<br \/>\nkindness; he wanted the same<br \/>\nfor the rest of me<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nEven the finesse in pressing<br \/>\nperiwinkle lace harder against my skin<br \/>\nwhile eyes reside unfocused;<br \/>\nwhen did imbalance<br \/>\nbecome sufficient<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nStrays jutting from either<br \/>\nside of his face, smoothed<br \/>\nmomentarily with my thumbs<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe way fingers trickle<br \/>\nto the jingle of pocket interior,<br \/>\nas the beggar narrows<br \/>\nthe sidewalk for us;<br \/>\nthe coins chime in your palms,<br \/>\na sound, just a sound,<br \/>\nthen, how easy it becomes to<br \/>\nforgive you and not tell you<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/nn-Torbatnejad-headshot-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"nn, Torbatnejad, headshot\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4076\" srcset=\"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/nn-Torbatnejad-headshot-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/nn-Torbatnejad-headshot-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/nn-Torbatnejad-headshot.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad was born and raised in New York. Her poetry has appeared in <em>The Commonline Journal, The Coe Review, Kudzu House Quarterly, The Chiron Review, <em>and is forthcoming in <\/em>Passages North, Stillwater Review, Orange Coast Review, apt, <em>and <\/em>Riprap Journal.<\/em> She currently lives in New York and practices matrimonial law. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The butter slices, avocado pieces fall into his lips, slide into the song of sealed eyes humming; I stay only until I know which of the two is doing the seducing &nbsp; Simple things, like spring sweat hands meeting when motorists show no mercy; thank you for quickening my step, sparing me from limbs flying [&#038;hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[204],"class_list":["post-4080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-the-sleeping-gypsy-by-henri-rousseau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080","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=4080"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4086,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions\/4086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}