Benchmark of Plunder

We needed an onion, the row
in our garden used up so I
slipped over to the garden
my neighbors keep— they were
out of town for the weekend.
Their onions packed in two
long rows gave me one, and while
I was there I snipped off a head
of cauliflower, beautiful firm
white flesh untouched by spots
or worms, and picked a small pan
of green beans which I hope
they won’t miss. Their garden
is loaded for harvest.
I have been reading about the
Romans, what a grabby lot they were,
no wonder the barbarians clobbered
them. But you have to hand it to
them, wherever they plundered
they left something, roads, walls,
aqueducts, some say they lined
the baths in Bath, England, with lead.
After all they owed something to
the people whose country they robbed.
Now where did I leave my good paring knife?
I had it when I cut the cauliflower . . .