Artwork © Robert Fleming

 

Santa Claus Busted for Child Pornography!

After Cinderella wore that White Lives Matter T-shirt,
is it any wonder her fairy godmother marched with a tiki torch
while shouting, “Jews will not replace us?”
You can’t trust anyone. Dr. Dolittle doses rhesus monkeys
with pesticides and Sherlock Holmes demands
the Central Park Five get the electric chair
even after evidence exonerated them.

The problems go far beyond Sleeping Beauty’s shoplifting,
the Three Little Pigs’ gambling addiction,
and the White Rabbit’s cocaine use. I’m talking Pinocchio’s
sexual assaults and Snow White’s hostile work environment.
I’m talking Dr. Zhivago working for big tobacco.

Disillusionment steamrolls everyone I believed in.
Mr. Smith went to Washington and took PAC money.
Prince Charming harasses female gamers online.
Rapunzel says the Holocaust never happened.
Goldilocks mocks her fans. Bob Cratchit beats his wife.
Paul Bunyan claims sunspots cause climate change.
Lancelot alleges Democrats run a pedophile ring.
The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy says vaccines cause autism.
Little Red Riding Hood slapped Chris Rock.
Et tu, Thumbelina?

 

Jon Wesick is a regional editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual. He’s published hundreds of poems and stories in journals such as the Atlanta Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, I-70 Review, Lowestoft Chronicle, New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Paterson Literary Review, Pearl, Pirene’s Fountain, Slipstream, Space and Time, and Unlikely Stories Mark V. His most recent books are The Shaman in the Library and The Prague Deception.

Robert Fleming is a gay-man, word-artist, and scientist born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who emigrated to Lewes, Delaware, United States. Robert follows his mother as a visual artist and his grandfather as a poet. In 1986 he published the second psychological research study on gay men’s response to AIDS in United States. Then, in the 1990s he was a contributing member of the District of Columbia’s Triangle Artist group. Now Robert is a founding member and contributing editor of Devil’s Party Press’ Old Scratch Press.