BIO
Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad was born and raised in New York. Her poetry has appeared in Passages North, Chiron Review, The Commonline Journal, Kudzu House Quarterly and Narrative Northeast. She currently lives in New York and practices matrimonial law.
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Eggshells
Yolkless eggs underneath
your feet will crack
only to reveal nothing,
so walk along these soft
shells with the pride of
the careless,
breaking another’s skeleton
will leave you with ghosts
forever slipping beneath
your unkind skin.
.
Spider
The architect of your own home,
how deviously you spin thin wisps
into dungeons so enchanting,
the prisoners would never know
the way you weave the string,
design from memory
a fine lattice
that maddens
ill-fated visitors;
what concentrated movement of your legs,
a Machiavellian calm to your steps,
unruffled by unscheduled wind,
is a magnetic glimpse
for enticed inspectors
And I know I cannot escape
without ripping any more of these strands.
I should not wreck this fragile home
built with the paradoxical strength
of seduction
Still, shameless greed keeps me
readily trapped, entangled
in silk layers; this is the center
willfully spun for captives
Here, stuck in the cellophane sheet
of your finesse, I pray
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