On Mother’s Day, I throw a penny in the fountain outside City Hall. I want Mother to come home. 

There’s no response, just the clink of the penny, the whoosh of water, and reflections dancing.

I throw a second penny. Wish for Mother to write. Can she just say she loves me? I want her to explain likening motherhood to a hamster wheel. Tell me why.

Clink.

With the third penny, I want to forget. Stop wondering how some mothers love and others don’t. 

I wish I could be a penny, beautiful, dignified, and accepting.

I have to stop wishing.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. Yash’s work is forthcoming or has been published in WestWard Quarterly, Café Lit, and Ariel Chart, among others.

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