Page:Trees Kilmer.djvu/53

TREES AND OTHER POEMS ST. ALEXIS

E who beg for bread as we daily tread

Country lane and city street,

Let us kneel and pray on the broad highway

To the saint with the vagrant feet.

Our altar light is a buttercup bright,

And our shrine is a bank of sod,

But still we share St. Alexis' care,

The Vagabond of God.

They gave him a home in purple Rome

And a princess for his bride,

But he rowed away on his wedding day

Down the Tiber's rushing tide.

And he came to land on the Asian strand

Where the heathen people dwell;

As a beggar he strayed and he preached and prayed

And he saved their souls from hell.

[ 47 ]