Hate Speech and Glitter
by Tony Longshanks LeTigre

It was Sunday of Pride weekend, epicenter of the biggest and gayest celebration in the world: the parade kicked off at 10:30 a.m. A magnitude-8 glitterquake was set to rock San Francisco. People came from all over to watch, to take part, to turn shame upside down and be the most fabulous possible version of themselves.
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I wanted to be his girlfriend, but that wasn’t the way it worked out. So I took the next best thing: mistress. Even still, I’m uncomfortable with a word that implies a lack of free will on my part. It’s a lovely word, really, supple and strangely blue-blooded. It's also full of bad meaning. Anyway, she knew. His girlfriend, Liz, knew all along about me, so whenever he called her from my loft, he wasn't forced to lie and say he was working late.

Dear Master _____ ,

I would like to thank you again most sincerely for the opportunity to travel outside of our small community. To see the world is a sure way of expanding the senses and increasing one’s knowledge of self and our fellow man. As well, it was gracious of our most famous visitor, Ms. J____, to allow me a place in her home. I have included a photograph of her rather large residence in a section of this country named after angels. Do not think that I am still in this country because of such ostentation. Far from it. It seems to me that everyone here is concerned with how fast they can move and make money, although there is also the other problem of their consumption which seems to be the more pressing issue. It is a land where eating has become one of their non-official sports. Dear Master, there is so much that can be done here and needs to be done right away for their souls. They need our help.

at 5 am I ask the mirror
why the remains of calendars
smother my writing desk
instead of poems or lights.
the mirror sprawled
in one corner laughs back,