AN IMAGINARY PAGE FROM VIRGINIA GIUFFRE’S DIARY

by Lisa Seidenberg

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.

KNAVES AND HEARTS

by Joe Crocker

u/Rhodesy97 at Reddit

Prince Andrew, interviewed by Maitlis
called to mind no arm-round-waist. His
fault, he shrugged, if fault it be,
was honour in too high degree
 
And being honour bound could he
ignore a friend in need or flee
the duty that behoves a Royal
or, God forbid, appear disloyal?
 
Appearances. That is the key
to understanding how men see
yet fail to notice girls beneath
the clothes, the curves, the smiles, the teeth.
 
But girls don’t count for much apart
from being pretty: they’re just tarts
for knaves to steal. Boys will be boys.
who rubberneck like angle-poise
 
lamps in search of something sweet.
And, finding honey at their feet,
take their pleasure as they please.
Lips are licked and chances seized.                   

Well, times have changed. They’re better now.
Or would be if we could learn how
to be excited by success
that marries want with tenderness.
 
Let lawyers push the paper round 
—their casuistry may rebound
to shame them as they batten down
(including he who wears a crown).

Author's Notes: Previously, in interview with BBC’s Emily Maitlis , Prince Andrew, said he had no recollection of being photographed with his arm around the waist of 17 year old Virginia Roberts Giuffre. He defended going to stay in the house of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying “at the time I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgement was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable.” Now Prince Andrew accepts he has been served US court papers over sexual assault claims. The issue of whether the royal had been notified about the case had previously been contested (Guardian). Prince Andrew’s lawyer Andrew B. Brettler had argued at a previous hearing that Ms. Giuffre had entered into a "settlement agreement" with Epstein that would end her current legal action. He believes that the agreement "releases the duke and others from any and all potential liability."

 

 

Joe Crocker gets suspicious when lawyers look for loopholes. He has had poems published in The New Verse News, Snakeskin, Allegro, The Orchards, Philosophy Now, and Light.