“Out of This World,” by Brooksie C. Fontaine
Apr 20th, 2024 | By Defenestration![](https://www.defenestrationmag.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Defenestration-Fiction.jpg)
I am Michelangelo. The bridezilla is the Pope. That’s how I choose to look at it.
Is it pleasant to be the unfortunate baker tasked with making her wedding cake? No.
I am Michelangelo. The bridezilla is the Pope. That’s how I choose to look at it.
Is it pleasant to be the unfortunate baker tasked with making her wedding cake? No.
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed members of the PTA, please lend me your rapt attention. I know you’ve already taken in a range of different issues tonight, some of which will no doubt have shocked you. Boys caught smoking in the toilet. Office staff siphoning off donations from deceased alumni. The rowing team recruiting local beggars into a bare-knuckle boxing league. But believe me when I tell you—none of that matters. Because the issue I’m about to raise with you is something infinitely graver.
You proudly do your hair like Princess Leia’s for picture day only to quietly take out the buns later when the other school children giggle and stare. You trade your stuffed rabbit, Hoppy, for Sarah’s lion at school and regret it immediately.
This poem is delightfully small. We won’t spoil it with a preview!
Mr Darwin, prickly and aged bachelor biology teacher
At a public school I will not name,
Stood lab-coated before a class of rowdy troglodytes each Friday,
Who mocked his every feature, every foible—he
Being the only specimen they ever cared to examine,
Microscopically.