Pulled out, alive,
from beneath the rubble
of mud, slumbering lumber,
oppressive concrete clumps,
you are a poem
a poet has fashioned
with a hallelujah ending,
a song that simmers
then explodes with mirth,
a canvas splashed
with dashes from every
rain-color-bow that ever arched
over the Amazon, the Mississippi,
the perfumed Nile.

Shiny fellow,
new as the dawn,
novel as a ghost,
your footsteps
don’t thud
but ring out—
a surprise—a steeple gone wild.


Listen to Austin Alexis read his poem here: