Kyle Scott

Kyle Scott obtained his Master’s degree from Illinois State University in 2006, under the tutelage of Lucia Cordell Getsi. Poems from Kyle have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry and Spoon River Poetry Review. He lives in the French Quarter, with the artist and photographer Vaeda Baty. Kyle’s poem was inspired by the cover photo of The Choctaw Before Removal by Carolyn Keller Reeves.

Choctaw Woman

~After The Choctaw Before Removal

the year I drew breath
the year 6 teeth left
the year they brought ink
the year cotton did not come

the night we went to war
with our brothers to the North
the day the shot, the musket came
the large harvest

the flood
and the morning the mother dog
gave birth to her last litter
the day the bees froze in their holes
when we thought that they would leave for good

but they grew, with illness
and then we were ill
and the fields were let go
and the nights grew quiet
resenting us; punishing us

and the fire to the North
took away the last of our friends
after that summer, no one
came, only meetings
and no deer. No buffalo. No rabbit.
we grew few, and were told to walk away
from our opening, our mound
and we never saw our sun again.

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