Baby Steps

I’m the baby of the family, life rife with don’ts. Don’t bike fast, don’t see this movie.

Ride this way. See that movie. Let Nancy or Penelope go with you.

Don’t walk on the railroad tracks. Avoid downtown.

If I trip, they gather. Careful. Drown me in lilting voices, labyrinthine arms.

Now I face bills, lesson plans, classroom politics, world demanding. I try to negotiate, weave, bullshit.

The world demands toughness. Do I get tougher? Do I become more tender?

I need to hear those don’ts.

But they just have confidence in me now.

I’m a baby in a huge pond.









Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. Yash’s work is forthcoming or has been published in WestWard Quarterly, Café Lit, 50 Word Stories, (mac)ro (mic), and Ariel Chart. Yash currently lives in Idaho.

See more of Yash's work in 8.2 and 8.2 and 8.2 and Special Flash 50/50