The Family Floor

 

On the family floor, top of the stair,

you sleep next to his daughters though you are

less heir, relative — more retinue; there

until they can find usage for you, not far

away, where servants would sleep. Proximate

to fetch their warm milk when they weep. Open

your door without a thought they should knock, wait

for permission. There is no lock. Broken

the day you are led to this room, small bed

a cracked mirror, inherited doom like

an uncle who seeks, poppy-addled head,

a castaway child, crow featherbed, right

where he wants you. He positioned you there,

on the family floor, top of the stair.

 

 

Author’s Note:

 

The Family Floor is a Crow Carriage sonnet

about a very dark young woman with a

darker back story. In this poem, the young

woman who will come to be known in this

tale as the Mistress of Malice is only a

homeless little girl sent to live with rich

sadistic relations. Their power over the

girl will end later in the book in a tragic

way when one night The Mistress of

Malice meets The Doctor…

 

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 fifteen books of poetry including Pink Plastic House, Shut Your Eyes, Succubi  (Maverick Duck Press), Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir (The Hedgehog Poetry Press), Flutter: Southern Gothic Fever Dream (TwistiT Press) and The Meadow (APEP Publications).  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