PREVIEW: Crow Carriage Sonnets by Kristin Garth

 

Take a peek into sonnets from the upcoming new Crow Carriage series by Kristin Garth. They tell dark tales of fearsome experiments in Victorian England. Witness, if you will, a murder of crows…

Crow Carriage

Once upon wet cobblestone, exploded

oak and child alone, luminosity

of lightning storm, surround a carriage, crow

plumes, cuneiform of confectionery

across its dripping door. Behind, you see,

between top hat, cravat, blush warm cheek

while you will shiver, in the street; you seek

regal beak to touch, sculpture, decomposed

avian. Driver beckons not within

but towards some debris of broken tree

that block their passage. You and he labor then

they drive away. Steal one feather for the

pence unpaid. Passenger turns, stares you down.

All fear Crow Carriage once your corpse is found.

You Belong to a Murder Long Ago

He lives in a locket mother keeps closed

against a similar organ beneath

opera clothes. A brother decomposed

decade ago in gold leaf laurel wreath,

her favorite you know. Her fingers caress

his memory there, in furrow of tit

no longer shared. If the best convalesce

eventually die, the rest, counterfeit,

look towards sky for love even feathered,

feral to feed, a flock on a playground

who recognize need. Wings like the weather

and wet oscillating soul they surround.

In childhood, you chose communion with crows.

You belong to a murder long ago.

Crow Carriage – author notes

Crow Carriage is a dark poetic tale of a terrible nobleman conducting a dark experiment in a village in Victorian England. His character is called The Doctor. This title poem introduces him and his Crow Carriage, an eerie carriage ornamented with a skeletal bird and covered in crow plumage. No one in town approaches the carriage after one child plucks a feather from it in a lightning storm and is found deceased shortly thereafter. This sonnet Crow Carriage is his story. The second sonnet explains how this character came to belong to a flock of crows, or – apt, in his case – a murder.

Featured Art: Amy Alexander