cobbled Regensburg

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

scenes we can feel

places with history speak

without words as though

we, too, experience

what has happened

within that setting

as though the archway writhes

or the rocks give witness

or billowing dust at the horizon

breeds terror, anticipating

marauding hoards

scenes we can feel