Picking Pieces by Mir-Yashar Seyedbagheri

 

Hiding in the Stacks by Angie Garrett from Flickr.com

They teach me to clean. Wash the dishes, dry them, stack them in order. Be a good boy.

But what do you do when dishes are hurled with words?

You’re always working too hard, Herman. What does that mean, working hard?

You have all the time in the world, Betty.

I’m running on a hamster wheel. Be a good mother. Comfort, comfort. Why don’t you be the parent, Herman?

What do you do when you have to pick up the pieces?

What do you do when your attempts to glue them together look grotesque and out of place?

Everything breaks again.

*****

 

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University's MFA program in fiction. A native of Idaho, Yash’s work is forthcoming or has been published in WestWard Quarterly, Café Lit, and Ariel Chart, among others. He lives in Garden Valley, Idaho.