Bethlem Asylum

[Delta40]

Inside Bedlam Nathaniel screamed,
You say I'm mad but Lord knows
this place is madder than I.
It's been said the poor man was outvoted.
Manacled to the wall.
Chained to the floor.

Sick and wasted from the rotting cesspit,
how slow five years must pass
for a sane man dragging the ball and chain
of effluvias so peculiar to the incurable
that windows without glass
froze even Hogarth's A Rake's Progress.

Madness, claimed the former priory must pay a price
and for one penny such lost souls might be saved.
Bless those who would visit on the first Tuesday of the month.
Curious faces peered through cells in morbid delight,
hopeful sub-humans frothing at the mouth would appear.

The chink of coin on dank ground
drew the muttering brutes from their corners.
In rags that symbolized man's own inhumanity to man,
Nathaniel beat his chest like a rat faced gorilla
and defecated on the stone floor to show his contempt.

Perverse laughter mingled with the foul stench.
Nathaniel clattered his plate across the bars,
repulsed by the sickness that paid for his spectacle.
He bathed in their ghoulish pleasure exalting heavenward,
Glory be to God for Bethlehem!