Artwork © John Taylor II
“You Did Well. The Prince Had Fun”
What Ghislaine Maxwell
said to Virginia Guiffre
haunts me.
I contemplate the word “fun.”
What it should mean
to a seventeen-year-old.
Cupcakes and foil balloons.
Choosing a dress for the prom.
One with or without ruffles.
Thrilling rollercoaster rides
on graduation night.
Dreams for the future.
Not this stolen innocence.
These robbed lives.
This twisted idea of a word
that has lost its meaning
in a most horrid vice
the rich and powerful
are capable of doing
to the vulnerable.
Jackie Chou (she/her) is a writer from Southern California who has two collections of poetry, The Sorceress and Finding My Heart in Love and Loss, published by cyberwit. Her poem “Formosa” was a finalist in the Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Prize. She also has poems published in Synchronized Chaos, The Ekphrastic Review, Panoply Zine, Alien Buddha Zine, and Spillwords.
John “Hoss” Taylor Jr. is a cartoonist from Hebron, Maryland. He graduated from Salisbury University with a bachelor’s degree in art. His art and comics work has been published in various literary magazines (both in print and digitally). Hoss can be found at home with his wife Caitlin, and their daughter Sophia.