Aphorisms
Vocal Community Microfiction Series - Pride
Grant stood within the ruin of his garden. Where roses once bloomed there was concrete. Where there was once hydrangeas there was filth. And where there was once a bench there was...
Nothing.
His phone buzzed. It was Kent from TCHC.
I told you to tone down the gayness.
He stared at where the bench should have been. The one his husband built for them.
Before he died.
Fire burned in Grant's chest. He remembered his husband's favorite aphorism:
"You don't fuck with Queers."
Grant saved Kent's message-
and made a phone call.
*
*
*
Thank you for lingering
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Comments (3)
Such a compelling story and message. ❤️
Early this year an award-winning garden in Uptown Toronto was torn down on the orders of a single, ignorant person. The gardener, Brian Gorrell, lived in a building managed by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation and cultivated the garden, without complaints, for 10 years. The reason behind the garden's destruction was that the straw used to protect the plants during winter posed a fire hazard to the building (the straw was buried beneath snow at the time), among other things. But the damning reason was that the one who ordered its removal found the garden "too gay" and disliked Brian and his husband for being homosexual. That person had enough power in the TCHC to tear the garden down. While the story recently reached a bittersweet settlement, (the person who ordered the garden destroyed got fired and TCHC is bending over backwards to "make things right") it provided the basis for this story. Brian put it succinctly when I spoke to him about the incident and the aftermath: "You don't fuck with Queers." Links to the news articles will appear in the comment section in Vocal+Assist.
You really don't.