--by Eli Azizollahoff
The monster known as Bigotry has the general form of a scapegoat with the horns of the devil from your left shoulder and the glowing eyes from the first staring contest you lost. It stands as tall as your shortcomings and as broad as everything you claim is too heavy for your shoulders. It is summoned with the pentagram star of the flag you say you are acting to honor and marches to the rhythm of your gunfire-drum. It has the shifting face of every school yard bully you have lost yourself to and the shrieks of every child who has trembled in your shadow. Its tail looks much like the back-end of a fish, flipping back and forth from whatever opinion makes you seem the highest and mightiest, scales catching the light in all the most attractive ways. Though its gate is led with a haughty head, its shoulders demand attention and when ignored they grow; more boisterous, louder, wider - until it feels like the elephant in the room you use his horns to prod in the most painful places. Bigotry is as old as time and as strong as the might of every trolling comment you’ve ever posted. Bigotry’s most notable characteristic is its sense of smell; it can sniff out weakness within ten heartbeats and tear it from its respite in the dark. When you look past Bigotry’s sneers and huffs and perpetually prone muscles it kind of looks like everything you ignore when looking in the mirror.
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