Hometowns

Milton Jordan

June 30, 2024

   The windmill and the water-tank

   Still stand on solid ground.  

Jimmie Dale Gilmore 

Usually in autumn we head back to town,

still well beyond Houston’s sprawling reach,

and stay, as always, in unit eighteen   

at the east end of Blanchard’s Travelers Rest,

though few travelers still use this route.

Our first view cresting the rise from the southeast

slowly turning blades on the town windmill,

once, with its matching sister on the west end,

the primary water source for our hometown

now long served by the LCRA.

Blanchard’s oldest nephew, Scott, who’s run  

the Travelers Rest for a dozen years,

says he had thought he’d outlast those rusting blades

but warned us this year we’d best consider

a freeway motel next October.

Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. He co-edited the first Texas Poetry Assignment anthology, Lone Star Poetry, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022.