UNFORGIVING TO MAN**

At a ball in Moscow, I write a note to Anna Karenina asking her to meet me in the dining hall. The last line of the note is a pun about osetra (a type of caviar) and ovaries. When I enter the dining hall, I am no longer a male, I'm myself. The Maestro has been waiting for me, and we are seated at a bed. He orders blinis and caviar. The lights are turned down low and he tries to seduce me. Then he's no longer the Maestro, he's my father. I leave.

I'm wearing a white gown, and I'm about to go on stage. Tchaikovsky Concerto of course. But someone else has gone ahead of me, and I am told that I am no longer needed. As I leave, Henry Kissinger greets me in the wings. He says, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Henry Kissinger. I have been watching you."

He pulls an old program guide out of his pocket, and it has a picture of me in it as a ten year old next to a short article. I am interviewed in the article about my composition. I am quoted as saying, "If you listen to the bass line, you will hear the many thorns and brambles of the landscape. This is a wild, tough place unforgiving to man."

**This piece has been Masterminded by Zulieka. Check her and her cool writings here.