Free Range
1 min readOct 25, 2022
People believe in the babydoll dress,
wet twinkling eyes of a girl he will
meticulously test before he requests
she venture outside, after her daily pill,
a perfected dosage of milligrams
to weaken a will. Drilled commandments
mingle in skin with the clonazepam
until she cannot fail but present
as something untouchable, childlike
again or hold back a grin from old men
encountered on the street on adult trikes
while her captor watches, discrete, in
his window knowing she will soon turn
toward torture again no one discerned.
Kristin Garth is a Pensacola sonneteer and the author of The Meadow (Alien Buddha Press). Find her on Twitter @lolaandjolie
