Poetry: Real Girl Next Door by Kristin Garth

Real Girl Next Door 

“He was taking the girl next door and

he was soiling her.” Sondra Theodore on

Hugh Hefner whom she dated from 1976-1981

 

for Linda Lovelace & after Secrets of Playboy 

 

Real girl next door arrives in Holmby Hills 

infamous Gothic-Tudor, freckled

curly top rag doll an abuser gives pills.

None think she wants to be there, unsettled

staff and valets. Everyone assesses

her by what she did only seventeen 

days under duress in an eyelet dress 

translucent under stage lights; casts a sheen 

over bruises, misinterpreted bumps heard 

in the night through thin hotel walls. Pretend 

she is all right. A German Shepherd blurred 

against their laughter tonight will blend 

into an ordeal she was too fragile to fight — 

soiled for spoiled millionaires, hard to excite.

Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Rhysling nominated sonneteer and a Best of the Net 2020 finalist. Her sonnets have stalked journals like Glass, Yes, Five:2:One, Luna Luna and more. She is the author of over 20 books of poetry including Crow Carriage (Sweet Tooth Story Books) and The Stakes (Really Serious Literature) and the founder of Pink Plastic House a tiny journal.