Aftermath
Kat Gonso Answer the phone when your father calls the morning after Trump wins the election. Be overly conscious of the tremble in your voice. Listen as your father tells you, “Don’t be a pussy. It's not the end of the world." Consider coming out in the most public of fashions. In the New York Times. On a billboard. That'll show him! Realize your foolishness. You're a 46-year-old lesbian and it's too late for you. Worry about the future of your imaginary, unborn children: Elizabeth and Jonathan. Read that the Canadian immigration website crashed on November 8th, as did the DOW. 900 points. Consider moving to Beirut. In Beirut the walls will shake and the crumbling ceilings will rain into your cornflower and marigold petal tea. Consider moving to Bruges, but you don't know what language they speak. Stay put. Decide to fight. Convince your friends to make posters and attend a Love Trumps Hate rally in downtown Chicago and chant and chant and chant. Get a contact buzz. Feel no relief. Furiously write handwritten letters to senators and postcards to electors. Call Paul Ryan. Call state reps. Call. And call. And call. Feel no relief. Use phrases like "post-fact" and "rhetorical follies." Worry about Elizabeth and Jonathan. Despite growing financial concerns, set up monthly contributions to the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign. Take an Uber to Treetop, the club where Lolly and Michigan are waiting. Allow Lolly to slather oil and gold glitter down the thick ridge of your cleavage and to pump up your eyelashes with black. Remember that time back in Ohio when your father called you a dyke after he caught you feeling up Cassie Longfellow in the hot tub. Tell Lolly, "More glitter. More booze." Approach a sleek dancer with curly hair. Buy her a gin and tonic. Don't talk. Cease composing letters to politicians in your head. Dance. Forget. For now. |
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About the Author: Kat Gonso has been featured in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Southeast Review, American Literary Review, Fringe, Corium, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, among others. Her work has received two Pushcart nominations (2014, 2015).