Poem: "The Grey Nomads"

This poem came out of the August 6, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired and sponsored by rix_scaedu.  This also fills the "halcyon" slot in the Rainbowfic Moonlight list.

They have done their share of work
and retired to the open road,
exchanging the filtered office atmosphere
for the wind in their greying hair.

They have left their little square houses
for caravans and camper vans,
moving from campsite to campsite
like the wandering folk of old.

They carry their memories with them,
echoes of the halcyon days
and darker ones alike,
smoothed by years of touching.

They are storytellers still,
if not tinkers or tailors,
and if you sit beside their fire
you can hear of the world as it once was.

They are not diviners per se,
but they have lived enough history
to see the future quite clearly
without need of cards or crystal balls.

They are not trying to outrun death
but rather to travel alongside life,
and when death pulls up alongside them
it will be no more than the opening of a new road.