In The Asylum

A Poem inspired by the titles of the Tales by Guy de Maupassant You’ll see them abandoned in back wards It may be hinted they’re off on a country excursion Not part of a humble drama A family’s secret Insanity may come as a coup d'etat A cremation of memories and selves Patients flit like ghosts along the corridors For madness is the mother of monsters Confessions, recollections May be sparked by a quiet whisper The whimsy of a shadow on the wall They are all at sea, Circling the ward like the drowned Who remain unburied Released, they account for suicides Beggars, drifters, swamped by the currents Of living in the world What is sanity? How long is a piece of string?