What we know of spirit and visible ink,
the human voice raised in remonstrance
against bloodshed and greed
we learned from you, and from your small birds
glimpsed at twilight, and the ubiquitous coat
shrouding flesh against plague.
They are walking against this morning's rain,
and the habit of skirting the terrible questions
that imbue the bomb and splintered cross.
The fountain will not die with you
but frame its steeple with the greater strength
and yes, waters will upward rise
in the memory of you.
Carol Alexander's poems have appeared in such journals as Bluestem, Caesura, Canary, The Common, Chiron Review, Illya's Honey, Mad Hatter's Review, Mobius, TheNewVerse.News, Poetry Quarterly, Poetrybay, Red River Review, The San Pedro River Review, Sugar Mule, THEMA and Zymbol, as well as in various anthologies including Through a Distant Lens (WriteWing Publishing) for which she received the award for best poem, and Proud to Be, for which she was a poetry finalist. Alexander's chapbook, Bridal Veil Falls, was published by Flutter Press (2013). Recent work appears in Split Rock Review and Clementine Poetry Journal.