cobbled Regensburg with stones

lifted into walls by Roman soldiers

two thousand years ago

a stone bridge across surging Danube

with treacherous whirlpools

known as strudels

to service Rome’s northernmost fortress

near the Regen River became trade

route as few other wooden structures

or ferries gave crossing for centuries

prosperous salt and other merchants built square houses with square towers on their right, the higher, the more

ostentatious the display of wealth

but when hard times led to debt

courts lifted out a large stone to warn

would-be traders of that merchant’s debt and shame