Much has been said, of late,
about statues
in this, our burning land.
Of disgrace,
and stone eyes surveying the continent
from a mountain-side perch.
Of the meanness
and the contempt,
all true.
And so they voted and hoisted him away,
probably relegated to a backyard somewhere,
for birds to poop on.
And in the interim, while the powers that be and
the powers that struggle debate
they have erected a square prefab box around the spot he used to sit.
And some smart alec has spotted the gap
and taken a can of green spray paint and emblazoned it
with that most mundane of all graffiti
Declaring for all to see
that although the offensive hunk of marble has been summarily removed,
we all know that at some stage,
“Rhodes was here”.