by Mir-Yashar Seyedbagheri

Tchaikovsky makes Nick waltz. En route to the coffee shop, classes, home, he dances, scores drifting into spring skies, billowing clouds. Nutcracker. Sleeping Beauty. He is carried by grace, melodic splendor, strings and brass instruments. No formalities. Things explode, stately buildings, blossoms, tender and pink. He trips, laughs, carries on.

When he waltzes, he releases weight. Father dissecting, calling him a senseless writer. Be a lawyer, a doctor. He forgets cynicism. He is no longer a character wearing wavering smiles, but a being, naked, untrammeled.

He will waltz, even if the world takes, people laugh and point.

This is truth.

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Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His story Soon was nominated for a Pushcart. Yash’s stories are forthcoming or have been published in Café Lit, Mad Swirl, 50 Word Stories, and Ariel Chart, among others.