Bed
belongs to silvered heads. Threadbare pillows,
pilled bedspread meager enough to expose
the forty calcified overgrown toe-
nails near its dinged footboard of those reposed
in perpetuity. Four ninety-year-
olds who soon will be eleven again
this evening when the grandson appears.
Chocolate whispers sate hungry ears. Thin
crinkled lips one licks to tell a story, sort
of, too, a spell — muffles a noisy gut,
arthritic pain, unhinges jaw, transports
them from what inane starvation abuts
two rooms seven share, a communal bed.
Chocolate incantations raise the dead.
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 sixteen 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