Now

by Yash Seyedbagheri

we can have HBO
now
an order of shrimp fried rice
pad thai or Ramen noodles
even a cocktail or two
now

we have our beds and baths
to send emails
and waltz without complaint to Tchaikovsky
and we have our own spaces and grease-stained sweatpants
the scents of onions and armpits
sanitizer, floor wax, pine-scented polish

and empty space
we have it all
now
when we order a smile
with a side of comfort and platitudes
and a dessert of promise
the line’s always busy

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” and “Tales From A Communion Line,” were nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others. Sally Lelong is a visual storyteller working in a variety of media that lend themselves to use in a conceptual framework. She lives and works in New York, and routinely exhibits her work in a variety of settings from print to thematic installations to street art.