Somewhere in a showroom in San Francisco or Seattle, a young couple

picks out their first nice dining room suite. They have no idea

of the men and machinery, the sweat and labor, the diesel fumes

and distance involved in placing this table in front of them to buy.

Jake-brakes judder a semi-truck to a stop at the only light in the county:

another load of hardwood headed to High Point

to be made into high-end furniture and shipped

all over the globe.

A white haired woman with a walker uses every second

to clear the crosswalk, allows the truck to turn left

over the mountain bound for Summersville, Beckley,

points South.

It’s a ritual repeated many times a day as the best timber in the eastern US — cut

into boards right here in Webster County, West Virginia by men

who’ve spent generations in the logging woods and lumber mills —seeks out

its higher purpose.

The couple walks around the table a final time before deciding, trusting

it will match their hardwood floors, some of which

have come from the self-same hillsides

as the wood for the table.

They know it will look good spread with the Thanksgiving dinners

and everyday breakfasts they imagine preparing

with the four hands between them

for the family they do not yet have.