His Face When It Will Flicker by Kristin Garth

is cracked glass Picasso striated grove —
skin branches, singed romances, flame buried 
in bone chip snow, glycerine.  Globe 
revealing glistening cemetery.

His youth, a sunken mausoleum 
mystery; angles become mangled. Face 
is wasting, cubed. Happens in a wink.
You think you are confused — staircase 

mistake of candlelight?  Dim castle dire
as host, Adonis, promise, flickering 
to ghost. Last crackle, dying fire, 
a stranger you see magic, suffering.

His face when it will flicker licks your heart.
Cannot know the end.  This is how it starts.

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Kristin Garth is a Pushcart & Best of the Net nominated poet from Pensacola and a sonnet stalker.  Her sonnets have stalked magazines like Five: 2: One, Yes, Glass, Anti-Heroin Chic, Occulum, Drunk Monkeys, Luna Luna, TERSE. Journal and many more.  Her chapbook Pink Plastic House is available from Maverick Duck Press, and she has another Pensacola Girls from Bone & Ink Press.  She has two forthcoming:  Shakespeare for Sociopaths (The Hedgehog Poetry Press Jan 2019) and Puritan U (Rhythm & Bones Press March 2019) from She also has a full length upcoming Candy Cigarette from Hedgehog Poetry in April.  Follow her on Twitter:  (@lolaandjolie), her weekly poetry column The Sonnetarium and her website (kristingarth.com).