Eastern Europe, January, 1800, Terzata #31

The coming of the naked year

Is announced by desiccated corn,

Its leaves quivering with fear.

These fields will never be shorn,

New seeds never sown —

Nothing slouches to be born.

We have given all we own

To the bankers and the lords

And secured only blood by loan.

Our shacks are hollow gourds,

No water to drink, only beer.

There’s no strength in hordes.

Bawds lift their skirts and leer.

Note: Terzata is a term of my own invention, a conflation of "terza" as in"terza rima" and "sonata." Other than the varying number of feet per line, the difference from terza rima is that each Terzata ends with a quatrain whose second and fourth rhyme is the same as the poem's beginning rhyme, and is composed of 13 lines (terza rima can be of any length). The first 30 Terzata, written several years ago, can be found here:  30 Terzata