Memorial of the Wind

John Rutherford

June 30, 2022

Breeze along I-10 over the Sabine,

head West, towards the sleep-bound sun

just look down, and you’ll see it,

the Confederate Memorial of the Wind.

Plain cast concrete, leering

a rotunda and flags sneering

at the street signs of Martin Luther King Jr. drive,

the Confederate Memorial of the Wind.

The land was chosen for its cheapness,

or so the cut-rate builders claim,

and there the project stands as witness,

the Confederate Memorial of the Wind.

A witness? Oh yes, and a warning,

a reminder or a place of mourning

a base for the lost cause returning,

the Confederate Memorial of the Wind.

Welcome, welcome home to Texas

we stop abortions here, and gambling,

but Houston’s chic and Austin’s weird and we have

the Confederate Memorial of the Wind.

John Rutherford is a poet writing in Beaumont, Texas. Since 2018 he has been an employee in the Department of English at Lamar University.