Poetry: Ode to Austin Davis by Michael Amitin

Ode to Austin Davis

 

Austin Davis a young man

yellow flowered shirt 

red hair alert

came upon trouble with the law

 

A town in Arizona where he took a stand

bringing food for the homeless , a one man band

 

In a town where lawmen poured their desert dry

dead branch brains

on his benevolent soft spring rain

 

His dawn not propelled by church bells, medal shells

scores of light

to shine his way

 

Austin Davis with a simple idea

to help the hungry find a life that day

 

The law said he had no permit

to do such a thing

 

Yet even Christ would do it

if he were there in that tumble-down desert ring

 

The law its badge of sacrilege

 

Austin Davis a young man

a heart the shape of a bridge

Michael D. Amitin has travelled the roads of the American West from California- east through the smoky burgs and train depot diners of Western Colorado, before moving to Paris, France in 2009. Named International Beat Poet Laureate 2020-2021, Amitin's poems have been published in California Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, North of Oxford, PoetryontheLake, Love Love Magazine, Litterateurrw, JerryJazzMusician, Horror Sleeze Trash and others. A collaboration with Parisian photographer Julie Peiffer has given rise to "Riverlights" and can be found on Fb @ Riverlights. Amitin's poetry can also be read on the FB and Instagram sites bearing his name.