by Yash Seyedbagheri
corpses, curves, and caseloads crush cries crying’s not sensational anymore so spectators hoard statistics and offer them to the hoi polloi promising instant understanding even if Mummy’s quarantined, Daddy’s gasping, and they can’t find a coffin for cousin Charlie just stir fake news, exaggeration, liberal plots, Lenin’s ghost for flavor. it beats hugs. what crisis does a hug answer what’s a hug feel like maybe it’s best not to know, but they say hugs are invasions of our bodily space a promise of permanent communion so Netflix and HBO make it seem then a release into cold wonderland besides think about what happens to huggers huggers promise summer homes, sister’s perfumes, wide spaces and soft sands and more hugs and nicknames, darling, sweetheart, dumbass how many seasons do they last?
Poet biography: 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.
Old Water Rat Publishing 