Patron of Beggars <br /> <br />We who beg for bread as we daily tread <br />Country lane and city street, <br />Let us kneel and pray on the broad highway <br />To the saint with the vagrant feet. <br />Our altar light is a buttercup bright, <br />And our shrine is a bank of sod, <br />But still we share St. Alexis' care, <br />The Vagabond of God. <br /> <br />They gave him a home in purple Rome <br />And a princess for his bride, <br />But he rowed away on his wedding day <br />Down the Tiber's rushing tide. <br />And he came to land on the Asian strand <br />Where the heathen people dwell; <br />As a beggar he strayed and he preached and prayed <br />And he saved their souls from hell. <br /> <br />Bowed with years and pain he came back again <br />To his father's dwelling place. <br />There was none to see who this tramp might be, <br />For they knew not his bearded face. <br />But his father said, 'Give him drink and bread <br />And a couch underneath the stair.' <br />So Alexis crept to his hole and slept. <br />But he might not linger there. <br /> <br />For when night came down on the seven-hilled town, <br />And the emperor hurried in, <br />Saying, 'Lo, I hear that a saint is near <br />Who will cleanse us of our sin,' <br />Then they looked in vain where the saint had lain, <br />For his soul had fled afar, <br />From his fleshly home he had gone to roam <br />Where the gold-paved highways are. <br /> <br />We who beg for bread as we daily tread <br />Country lane and city street, <br />Let us kneel and pray on the broad highway <br />To the saint with the vagrant feet. <br />Our altar light is a buttercup bright, <br />And our shrine is a bank of sod, <br />But still we share St. Alexis' care, <br />The Vagabond of God!<br /><br />Alfred Joyce Kilmer<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/st-alexis/
