USURA – CONTRA NATURA
with usura
hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
- Ezra Pound (“With Usura” Canto XLV)
Bent beside furrows like rivers boiling
from beneath the skirts of the first orange
tree, we set free regattas of twigs and leaves,
before mud-dams rechanneled our father’s water
for scrap, two-by-four barges hauling freight.
We explored cobwebbed corners of the barn,
played pretend aboard dusty wagon seats,
took turns driving winged steeds into
dancing particles afloat in the splintered
sunbeams. Flame in the cave, our shadows
flicker on the wall, dancing like cathedral
angels from paradise - the places we shape
beyond the grasp of governments and time,
beyond the baited traps of the same insatiable
perchmates: Mrs. Greed and Mr. Power.