They smelled of hickory campfires
Thick with eggs and a bacon slab
As these gray hairs
Came from the forest
To quench their thirst.

Wilderness was in their blood
Mountains in their bone.

Some wore white sox
Some dark
And one wore no sox, ever.

Some wore dark slacks
Some light
And one wore shorts, always.

With eyes that looked
Into the more that was there
They had come from the deep
That moves the light through the shadows.

They held a full round of secrets in their teeth
Following the rhythm of the terrain
With the feel of fingers that knew life’s pulse.

They had lived and in their season they live forever
With no darkness in their souls because that is
Where living water dwells.

When the sky cast itself gray
With the sun hidden in the belly of some clouds
The laughter from these men of silver whiskers
Grew clearer, grew more robust
But tastefully in accord with good spirits
As a promise revealed by their girth
Pronounced a glowing wonder into the air.

There could be
Only the electricity that made men, men between them
That traversed all horizons of time, of space
As their words coincided
With the geometry of good judgment
Even though they sparkled with brew.

As dusk spoke of pending darkness
They knighted the twilight
With the glow of their substance
And the blue heron
Found a home for the everlasting.

They were a crew of eagles
Perched on stools
Around a long, long table.

Their sound weighed heavy with wisdom.

Because of the way their jaws set
The bite of their ground teeth
Ground by years that chewed
On the hardships and pains that life serves
Generously
They would, from time to time
Look into the river and gather a wince
But mostly they shared
The good cheer that hope brought
That came with being right
With what matters most
Which granted these men
A full measure of a good life
And more. 

They were the knights

Of the long, long table

With sabers for tongues

With hearts of uncommon power

And their prowess governed with certain authority.

They are the good soil

That brings forth abundance.

They are the sunrise

That follows every setting sun.