- In the morning, The Honourable
- Minister For The Territorial Integrity of the Interior
- lifted himself from my bed
- using the same precision he’d
- deployed getting into it.
- Legs arched at the knees,
- he swiveled, Honourably
- as if controlled
- by an invisible mechanical cord,
- He placed his Honourable size ten feet
- evenly on the fluffy rectangular rug
- that held his hand made slip-on shoes
- selected as much for comfort as for their obscene opulence
- An Honourable man of exacting character,
- he considered a shoe
- of extremely comfortable fit
- a premium.
- My shoe, he said to me,
- in an Honourable baritone,
- Well-made as it is,
- sends a signal to the rest of the world.
- Tailored by the unforgettable hands
- of women and once virgin girls
- mothers and daughters sold into slavery
- by the disappointments of their homelands.
- He gave an Honourable snort of the
- Calf’s nose leather, the Made from label read,
- Designed to give you a barely there feeling.
- Their colour: A bitter cinnamon stained in honey red.
- They make me look sharper too, he explained, especially with
- my matching belt, motioning Honourably, at his mid riff.
- You know, he paused, left wrist catching the nothingness of air
- A man like me must have his regalia.
- $ 1550.00 he’d paid, cash.
- I’d kept the box they came in for other things.
- It stood on a simple chest at the foot of the bed.
- Custom made, it read, ~Durability ~ Quality ~ Originality.
- That evening he would lead
- This Honourable Minister,
- Who for 15 years had believed
- He’d had exclusive rent of me,
- A first class military operation
- To clean up the streets of filth,
- Unaccompanied women
- And other dangerous undesirables.
- A shoe, I thought
- Mmmm in mock pleasure
- Holding my box
- The dustbin of his leisure.
- The independent papers would report
- That a sole had left its birthmark
- ~Durability ~ Quality ~ Originality
- On the faces of my sister hookers
- While the solid silver buckle of its matching belt
- Struck Hure! Hure! Hure*!
- Causing a rise in welts
- Buttocks, thighs, breasts
- He earned substantial praise from his superiors
- And an Honourable mention.
- That was until the same independent papers
- Carried a full colour spread
- Of his explicit exploits and adult preferences
- With a woman who was identified only as The recently elected
- President Of the Society of Sex Worker Rights
- and the Integrity of the real Interior.
* Whore, whore, whore.
Read other articles in the series, 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence 2012.