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