September 15th, 2025
Under 25 Poetry Contest #10 – First Place
by Nashrah Tanvir
The woman returns to the kitchen.
Because to cook is to keep alive what you have created,
What you have birthed,
To nourish the fruit you bore,
Or the man you picked,
Or the one who picked you
To sustain them,
Blend your love like smoothies
Or pulse it up like carrots in a food processor
It's to tender love and care
The cuts of steak and sausage
And marinate your own hands
Make your back the very plate
The very meal the very life sucked out through marrow by teeth
By the bosom and the blossom it drapes
To sacrifice your own body for the jaws
Of those who do not have time to
Search up a recipe or ask their mother or their grandmother
Or one of the many women in their lineage for a family recipe
Because that would break the cycle
That flour is a girls work
It is the woman who remembers the culture
And the measurements of the sugar bowl,
Feminine filo,
Estrogen like yeast
Like bread and risen ghosts
It is the woman who knows what it is to share her own body,
Not with just fetuses but the eyes of so many the back molars and hungry hands
Of unwanted suitors
Of harsh appetites and tongues and conversation
Why can't the woman just cook for herself
Why must she be the meal
Why must she sustain and not be credited
Why must she bend her back and break it
So her children can feed
So the world can feed
And why is she silenced when she asks to keep
Her foot or a pinky
Or one of her eyes
Or anything of hers for herself
Not too meaty but not too light
So as to weigh the stomach
So as to satisfy the eyes
But not suffocate the palate.
About the Poet
Nashrah Tanvir resides in Faridabad, Haryana, India.
Read the poet's biography and Wax Poetry and Art publications
on Nashrah Tanvir's Artist Page.
Next in Wax Mag #8:
Market Price
Poem by Adenekan Olanrewaju (Oamlad)
Back to Wax Mag #8
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