Time Stopped

Time Stopped

My father was a firefighter.

Every time he returned from a mission,

I prayed that life would pause—

that something would interrupt its ordinary flow

and keep him from leaving again.

While the other children wrestled in the playground,

I would curl up in a corner beneath my raincoat,

staring at the luminous face of my watch,

listening to its painful ticking.

I asked God to stop time

so my father wouldn’t have to go.

That night, I looked at my watch.

Time stopped.

But my father did not return.

Biography: My name is Hamid Neasy, and I am a short story writer from Iran. For me, writing is a way of uncovering the hidden layers of human experience, where ordinary life often meets the surreal. Over the years, I have published two collections of short stories in Iran, The Dream of Love and Petrified Creatures. Both books reflect my fascination with memory, destiny, and the fragile line between reality and imagination.

I have been fortunate to see my stories published in several literary magazines inside Iran, and more recently, I have begun translating my own work into English so that it can reach a wider audience. My writing is deeply influenced by Latin American literature, especially the tradition of magical realism, which I often weave into everyday settings and characters.

Publishing internationally has been both a challenge and a dream, but I see literature as a bridge—between languages, cultures, and people. Each story I write is an attempt to cross that bridge and invite readers into the worlds I imagine.

I continue to write and translate from my home in Iran, always seeking new ways to share my stories with readers around the world.

Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/person-holding-silver-and-black-chronograph-watch-ZlvH9NSyaqk) 11. 3. 2026.

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