Gerrit Achterberg (1905-1962)

by James Thurgood

 no need to fear:  murder locked 
 in the asylum sleepwalks 
 in hand with the dead, 
 hums songs of lost love
 morning will cut and polish 
 to Dutch gems
  
 beyond the walls, the best and brightest
 tease out equations to split an atom 
 as a mind splits and explodes,
 while the just clever 
 rig tricks to switch a shower 
 back and forth, water to gas
 as a mind switches
 sanity to madness 

Gerrit Achterberg was a Dutch poet who committed a homicide in a fit of insanity.