Asylum Nights by Mike Rader

The moon finds the courtyard
Black in sleep,
Blind windows watch a man
Coarsely smocked,
Slanting into the shadows
Seeking escape,
Digging a precious knife
Into his fevered wrist,
Blooding the somber stones,
Where oft walks the superintendent
Beneath his umbrella
Lest moonbeams turn him
As crazed as his charges.

James Aitchison is an Australian author and poet.  As Mike Rader, he writes horror and noir fiction and poetry.  His work has twice appeared in Black Poppy Review, as well as Horror Tree (Trembling with Fear), Thriller, Akashic Books (Mondays are Murder) and many other magazines and anthologies.