"and he shall have dominion over them" Genesis 1:26

Though the lawyers concur
and the deed proclaims it so
I own neither the land
nor the treasure buried beneath it -
does the wind presume to post the trees
simply because it passes thru their leaves?
Can the mountain claim possession
of the crick that bounds down its side?
No, for they do not feign to entertain
such human sleights of hand.

As a child my title was clear -
clear as Little Laurel gliding thru hemlocks;
My searches? But for the arrowheads and butterflies;
My deeds? Those of any boy! -
a fort staked out on a boulder,
a dam in the road,
a jelly jar bright with lightning bugs.
My only interest then
was in balancing on oak limbs,
my only payments
homage to the milkyway and tadpoles in truck ruts,
my only responsibilities
filling the coal buckets
and emptying the cow ...

way back then, a millennium ago, I owned
     absolutely nothing
          but I had it all.

Bob Henry Baber

(from his book of Appalachian poems, A Picture from Life’s Other Side)