Kristin Garth


Of Gods and Ghouls

You lie very still in a dead girl’s bed.
Recall the variations relations
bled red - the brick brown of the uncle shed
after blood orange of wife, carnation
from lady’s maid this very night. Cadavers
all evil, none exsanguinate the same.
It is a phenomenon the doctor
perhaps could explain, the medical name
for what you have seen. Though when he enters
this bedchamber, you will contravene rules
established for pupil, pedagogue. Sure
you must terminate an experiment cruel,
return these maidens to skipping rope, school.
You once thought him God. He will die a ghoul.



Familiar Veins

Aware who enters when you hear the door,
only occupant responsive — doctor/
troubadour violating a laudanum stupor,
hypodermic in one hand. Eyeing her,
whence he stands, humming, empty hand outstretched
towards this blonde visage vexed. Translucent lid,
a membrane you blink, hide your feathered flesh
inside a quilt of pink. Where you have hid
begets a bird’s eye view. You must prepare
for what you must do should his needle seek
familiar veins. You know the nightmares
this concoction contains. Though you feel weak
a scavenger stalking prey, turned away,
you cannot lay down for torture one more day.




Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Best of the Net & Rhysling nominated sonnet stalker. Her sonnets have stalked journals like Glass, Yes, Five:2:One, Luna Luna and more. She is the author of seventeen books of poetry including Pink Plastic House (Maverick Duck Press), Crow Carriage (The Hedgehog Poetry Press), Flutter: Southern Gothic Fever Dream (TwistiT Press), The Meadow (APEP Publications) and Golden Ticket forthcoming from Roaring Junior Press. She is the founder of Pink Plastic House a tiny journal and co-founder of Performance Anxiety, an online poetry reading series. Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie) and her website kristingarth.com.

She notes: (The above are) "two Crow Carriage sonnets from my poetic hybrid novel our next year from Hedgehog Poetry Press. They are about a young girl who was once an accomplice to an evil doctor who has finally decided she must kill him. Also she has turned into a crow."
 
 
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