by Kristin Garth
The doctor tells you when she’s five, first bout
pneumonia, barely survived, that she is
susceptible — protectable without
exposure to much humanity. Kids
are carriers, fatalities to be
avoided to stay alive. Acres, pines,
moths, servants, swans, beehives, she thrives, thin trees,
cerebral climbs 60 feet to sunshine
illuminating friends, odd names revealed
when she, pretend, descends longleaf daydreams
in crazy quilts with doubts you keep concealed,
like mother’s guilt, just listening, it seems,
to speech of children imperceptible,
another way she is susceptible.
Editor’s Note: This poem will appear in the forthcoming Flutter: A Southern Gothic Fever Dream from TwistiT Press. Flutter is the story of Sylvia Dandridge, a 16-year-old dying of scarlet fever in 1883 Pensacola. Beset by fever dreams, she concocts a universe on the grounds of Longleaf Estate that bequeaths her progeny (lemon tree foundlings), drama (rabid swans and vengeful mermaid ghosts) and romance (a teenage seeming demon named Étienne). “Susceptible” is a sonnet about Sylvia at five when her mother realizes both how susceptible her daughter is to disease and fantasy.
Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Best of the Net & Rhysling nominated sonnet stalker. Her poetry has stalked magazines like Glass, Yes, Five:2: One, Former Cactus, Occulum & many more. She has six chapbooks including Shakespeare for Sociopaths (Hedgehog Poetry Press), Pink Plastic House (Maverick Duck Press), Puritan U (Rhythm & Bones Press March 2019) and The Legend of the Were Mer (Thirty West Publishing House March 2019). Her full length, Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir was published April 2019 (The Hedgehog Poetry Press), and she has a fantasy collaborative full length A Victorian Dollhousing Ceremony forthcoming this month (Rhythm & Bones Lit) and Flutter (TwistiT Press) in January 2020. Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie), and her website kristingarth.com.
(And don’t miss Kristin’s sonnet Sociopathy in Starbucks. – Elephants Never)