Toppling Giants

--for Stanley, Laurel, and Nicholas

It feels like an era 
of toppling giants.
No goliaths; these.
These are the ones

whose voices echoed

through the valleys

of the shadows 

of doubt

and whose shoulders

held up the sky

where faith hung bright,

sometimes clear,

and sometimes clouded. 

These are

the intellectual giants

of my youth;

their incremental landslides

have shaken my being

like earthquakes

that fell mountains.