I flew to the moon after Dad got drunk again and took my college
money. I needed a respite. I played among the stars. I saw what spring
was like on Jupiter and Mars. Fire and love. The whole time, I felt the
beauty of weightlessness, drifting among twinkling stars, my history
released into the cosmos. Angry fathers, bristling mustaches, criticisms
of my writerly dreams evaporated in the vastness. I stayed in space
until cold logic brought me home. But I planned my next respite to the
moon, visions of cosmos comforting me like a mother soothing my soul.
Mir-Yashar is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Sinkhole Mag, Gravel Magazine, 100 Word Story, and Ink In Thirds. He lives in Fort Collins, CO.