Whitewashed Waltz by Yash Seyedbagheri

waltzing through my mind,

Tchaikovsky welcomes me

to bowler hats and beards

pianos clinking with cascades

while winter whispers over white columns

carriage wheels

clickety-clack over nasal cadences, Twitter, and YouTube invective

my mind is vast space

my mind is St. Petersburg

of graceful gaits and long gowns

long live the Romanovs in uniforms

pogroms and dead peasants of old conveniently whitewashed

mind a canvas of piano notes

I could waltz through 1875, 1882, 1892

why can’t Tchaikovsky be on perpetual replay

waltz with me faster, Tchaikovsky

there’s a volley of nasal voices and fires

firing into my mind like so-called very fine neo-Confederates

one pause to refresh is fatal

more Romanovs, please.

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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 has also had work nominated for Best of the Net and The Best Small Fictions. A native of Idaho, Yash’s work is forthcoming or has been published in WestWard Quarterly, Café Lit, and Ariel Chart, among others.