Taychopera*

Downwind
this swamp reminds me of death
not just the rotting of organic matter
or the mounds I've built here
but the race against time

I wonder if Makataimeshekiakiak was near
the bird mound when he gazed upon Wonkshekhomikla
or if he was too hurried in his flight
I wonder if the signs tried to tell him
of what was to come

The world was crowded even then
moving with women and children one step
ahead of the army

Manifest destiny is a tough act to follow
in the heat of the summer
when the swamp smells of the cruelty of life and
power like a bad axe seems a temporal game

Reading geography harshly
like the brother from another planet
one feels vibrations
it can burn nerve cells

Nature and the shadow can suck in sunshine
Put it between the earth with
Murder feelings in the fingers
In the bones in the joints
preying

It's a long journey to the desert
Tachopera is not a bad place
cold at times but in reality
the reader determines the positions of place

*Taychopera is a Winnebago word which describes the four lakes area known presently as Madison, Wisconsin. Wonkshekhomikla is the Winnebago name for the lake presently known as Mendota, so named by a white man, from a Sioux
word meaning mouth of the river. Makataimeshekiakiak is the Winnebago name
for Black Hawk who was pursued tragically through this landscape in the early 1800s

At the End of Cinema

Make believe movies make
impressions
and records and
shadows that move through time
greet lighted faces
and most often say
the end

Mitosis slows and a frequency is lost
the flickering eclipse
stops

Image and sign make flowers on a grave
and the struggle for a parallel orb
comes to an end

All the movies come at once
and then darkness

^

Biography

Mike Mullane grew up in rural Iowa, and enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 18. He served from 1967-69, the last thirteen months in Viet Nam with the
5th Marines as a Radio Operator mostly in and around An Hoa. Mike has been active in the veterans' peace movement since his return from Viet Nam.

After the war, Mike attended the University of Iowa, later transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a B.A. in Communication Arts, specializing in film theory. He worked in television production following graduation until 1985, when he and his artist wife Jeanette moved to Portland, Oregon. Since then he has made his career in arts marketing.

In 2002 Mike co-authored the theatrical production: AWOL After War Our Lives in America, a play dealing with post traumatic stress disorder.

He can be contacted at mmullane7@hotmail.com