Saint Benedict Joseph Labre

you
looped
dusty
roads alone
to rome from france as
failed monk but triumphant beggar
god's gift of mental illness opened your sense of self
you surrendered your will to whims of weather, alms givers, and watchmen moving you on
mud covered, wrapped in stinking rags, flea and lice bitten—chamber pots dumped, stones cast struck you
yet you took all prayed, bilocated, and multiplied
loaves and fishes—saint or not still
i would not feed you
but would cast
you from
my
yard