by Lisa Seidenberg
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The photo of [Virginia Giuffre who committed suicide last week] and Prince Andrew, taken in London in 2001, became emblematic of the royal's entanglement with [Jeffrey] Epstein… who was said to have taken the photo—died in jail facing sex trafficking charges. Ghislaine Maxwell—who helped him abuse young girls and is pictured to the right of Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre—is in prison in the US. Prince Andrew has stepped down from all public duties. And Virginia Giuffre, a smiling teenager in the photo, is now dead. —BBC, April 28, 2025 |
“Giuffre alleged that after taking the role (as massage therapist to Jeffrey Epstein) she was trafficked to the financier’s friends and clients and ‘passed around like a platter of fruit.’ Among them, she claimed, was Prince Andrew.” —The Guardian, April 26, 2025
Today I am a mango
arrayed on a plate
ripe for the choosing
in a billionaire’s lair
Yesterday I was a peach
with downy skin, freckled
like a fawn’s back
In hunting season
Tomorrow I will be
a delicate treat—
a plum or a strawberry
finger food for preying hands
They will take me to shop
for a proper dress
offered up like a fruit tart
for the entitled eyes of a prince
Someday I will be a pomegranate
my seeds of bitter truth
left like Persephone
on a path away from the dark
Lisa Seidenberg is a 2025 Pushcart nominee. She is a writer and filmmaker residing in coastal Connecticut and a poetry reviewer for Whale Road Review. Her writing has been published in Atticus Review, Asymptote Journal, Gyroscope Review, One Art: A Journal of Poetry, The New Verse News, and others. Her photo book Dark Pools is available from PrintedMatter.com. Her documentaries and poetry films screened at Sundance, London, Athens and Berlin International Film Festivals. She is currently at work on her first chapbook.
