New Year’s Eve, I swig champagne, relishing the elegant oval glass.
For a moment, I’m a dandy in a pinstripe suit, not an asshole in faded navy-blue sweatpants, courtesy of thrift shops.
Another swig.
I’m tsar of Russia, a diplomat, someone who knows order. Regiment. Not maxed credit cards and Michelina’s TV dinners.
With another swig, I can dream on a pillow of bubbles. No nightmares about being trapped in cars with broken steering wheels or Ed Asner stalking me for inexplicable ransoms.
I swig, each swig longer.
When the clock strikes midnight, people cheer.
But reality takes me home.
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.