Governor Nelson 

"Among clouds I suddenly meet the new head priest;
on the rocks I spy inscriptions from earlier visits.
Idly I sit peering at a ruined pond where lotuses bloomed..."
    – Ch'i-Chi, "After the Rebellion, Visiting Mountains"








The Woodland Path leads to Panther Mound.
They have created a small brown fence
and a fine plaque to recognize the death
of the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk natives.
You picture the number of men it took
to push and pull such large cargoes of earth
to build over the grave of some known chieftain.
Today I am alone along the underbrush.
Embedded way back in the hollow the oaks
who stand alone, determined, surrounded
by the non natives of buckthorn
or the creeping and girdling bittersweet.
There are a few benches that stand
up at the top of the hollow like lazy old men.