Counting Crow

By Yash Seyedbagheri

Crows gather on the frozen pond, pecking at the ice. Dinnertime. They peck left and right, cawing, beaks circling their domain.

I clutch hole-ridden mittens, coldness rushing. My sister Nan waits, wanting to know if I found any coins today. Or dollar bills.

Legs wobble.

The sky shimmers pale blue and white, shadows deepening.

They peck on, cawing intensifying.

“I hear you fellows,” I whisper.

 I conjure Nan’s old crooked smile, unfurling with the exchange of bills.

On I walk, wobbling, eyes focused on spaces between tall grass, curving paths. I squint, slow, repeat. Shadows deepen and dance, numbness rising.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA fiction program. His stories, “Soon,”  “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” and “Tales From A Communion Line,” have been nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work  has been published in The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.