The Lima Tuberculosis Hospital

I went there with some friends when i was in ohio, creeeeeepy as hell.

Enter Dark 

Door with graffiti incantations.

A word in red rests. 

(smells of rusting iron, lead paint, specks of asbestos)

The sound of water

droplets carousel about 

the old, dust-heavy air. 

In places the ceiling has decayed and collapsed, 

diminished to red bricks and rubble.  

A thin saber of light reaches from my hand

cutting into every dark corridor,

Like the thin beam of a conscious inquisitor

inclined only to what he sees. 

B

      e

         e   

    e

p

!

A distant horn 

pierces 

thunderous 

silence

      skipping;

wall to wall,

skin to skin,

The ruins of time have

left there mark.

In lines 

and scatters, 

the ritual incantations 

of curiosity litter every room. 

( -smells of rusting iron)

The rooms where the beds

of patients once sat are

emptied and dark; remaining only in

crepuscular forms: Shadows 

and phantom hallucinations;  

 

such sun has past

between the wedge 

of pines, and the muddy 

passage out, between 

branches has long

darkened. 

(Drip drop drip)

(The beating of my heart thumps down the corridor.)

How many have died here,

There body's burned and 

crooked, having suffered 

A last breath in the heart

of the hospital?

Every sensation i share

with the buildings crumbling design.

It breathes in echoes and creeks now,

through the damp floors and rusty pipes,

through an old staircase, and the prism

of neuronal fireworks.  

It beats within my chest 

to escape the vacuum of death,

To cling to some-thingness

even as a crooked beast screeching

in the wind.

                

Its horror manifest in its myth,

A legend of disembodiment. 

Reviews

[Gandré]

It beats within my chest
to escape the vacuum of death,
To cling to some-thingness
even as a crooked beast screeching
in the wind.--------------------------------- this was my favorite stanza. very evocative, and you again, used onomatopoeia, I like when you do it. great poem.

[jenniewren (J.W. Bouwma..]

"crepuscular" *swoons* amazing word choice!

you've captured that eerie kind of feeling.. pulled me into the lonely creepiness and walked next to me as we rounded abandoned corners. i felt this way about an abandoned sanatarium i worked next to; crumbling, gorgeous castle-like acrhitecture, all tumbling stones etc.. but you knew horrors had happened there, and it was a restless uneasy place.

it left with a feeling not unlike how i felt reading "house of leaves" by mark z. danielewski.. and that is a great thing. gorgeous structuring as well

my only tiny niggling pause was:
"There body's burned and"

should be, "their bodies"?

[Bexfinch]

frightened me thats all i can say and wow !

[Rick Puetter]

Dear Sam,

Nice write. Interesting form. Very well written. You've imparted the feel of the place extremely well. My favorite line: "Its horror manifest in its myth". That's a good one, and followed so appropriately with "A legend of disembodiment."

Best regards,

Rick

[JENY]

I feel afraid....
Enigmatic......
A castle of words.......where ghosts lurks....
secrets.....prowls....

[.]

I can smell the horror...of man