By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
LITERARY UN GATE, April 26 – It was Big Tony Guterres' big day. Face-time with his papacita Putin if he could get it.
But first he'd have to get through two hours of lunch with Lavrov, in which polonium might or might not be included.
Back at the UN, Guterres ordered the publicly paid chefs to stuff his face on the 38th floor. He had complained about the wine one time to that lady from the Financial Times - damn her - and then gotten mocked by the blogger.
But now the blogger was banned, and the wine was more expensive and to Big Tony's taste.
Not so this lunch with Lavrov. Tony thought this new chief of staff Courtenay Rattray looked stiff, and Dujarric with that stupid iPhone was taking photos like a tourist. No matter.
All Tony had to do was agree with Lavrov that the US had no right to throw out spies from its country, especially if they worked for the UN, and he'd take to second base: his papacito Putin.
Tony'd seen Vlad get all close and personal with Olympians, or maybe it was banned Olympians. But he was sad to see that long long table, with Putin grandly gesturing for him to sit down.
Tony sat and, for the camera, took notes with a pencil. He had tried to remember his lines. Just stick to Mariupol, he'd been told. Nothing about Bucha. Bucha would stick in Vlad craw, and that Tony didn't want.
This could be a win-win. Putin could re-normalize himself as a world leader, and Guterres would look, how ever inaccurately, relevant again. Big Tony could dance for this. He danced.
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