The Benefit Race

for Team Je Me Souviens

They gathered in the pale before the dawn

Checking stirrup and strap, harness and helm,

Pack and saddle. They talked

Of last night's feasting.

Their cause is sober, so they drink;

The foe grim, so they jest.

Neither dour nor depressed,

Nor by some bleak humor possessed,

They are girded by what it used to mean to be free:

They go to war.

Not because war assures victory,

But because free people need not yield

That which they steward unfought. Free people

May meet the thief at hedgerow, stone wall, or boundary mark:

Even alone; even unarmed.

Ungently is how they choose to honor fellows

Drawn in part or in whole into that good night before the hour

Appointed. And now, at the signal, they mount up: they ride.

They, like Frost, have promises to keep

And miles to go before they sleep.