Armed
with a camera and a flashlight
We
climbed the concrete steps
To
the old hospital grounds
With
breath held tight in two pairs of lungs
We
swept the incandescent beam across the gravel lot
And
dirty window panes
Detritus
scattered & nooks piled high with dead leaves
Didn’t
quite deter us
Though
the scuffling of a harried hedgehog
Caught
us well off-guard
And
speaking of such
They
didn’t seem to be making their rounds
Years
before, a former inmate
Had
damn near maimed us both
Though,
we weren’t acquainted then
And
wouldn’t be for another several seasons
The
camera flash illuminates like manmade lightening
The
historic buildings and unkept shrubbery
Accompanied
by the implicit feeling of being watched
It’s
not until arriving home
When
your wife is inspecting the subsequent shots
That
the discovery is made
Of
a gnarled visage
Peering
from a window of the nurses’ quarters
Could
this be the fabled Lady in Grey?
A
late suicide, once found hanging from the shower rod
Or
something older
And
much more dark?
