The Exile

Michael Wasson

Chilocco Indian School, Oklahoma, 1922: A disciplinarian says, There is no

foolishness, do everything just so such as keep your room clean, keep yourself
clean, and no speaking of your Native language.

For now I can

just whisper
kla sw

the x?ox?ox?
of your hm kupp

wrecked at the base

of a century that burns

through my slow blood

kikt caught

in the blink silupe

so draw the eyelids

shut & forget the fire
tangled among the branches

of your spine
start where the skin meets

half an autumn
rusting the edge of winter that is

knifing between me & iin

you & iim ee

boy have you forgotten us

is not what they are saying

or are they asks another century

how are we remembered

in our choreography
of bones?

mouth your birthplace boy

without mouthing off timnepe is at the heart

or the heart of the monster

or the grass blood-soaked

from the fresh kill that finally isnt

 your father

& pray hwlekce when your body is given away says the
orphan boy

with lashes licked into his shoulders

forget imic because they can tear every lip from every
memory

of your mother

because you are

torn & because you are
what song fills
your throat
with the color
of carved out tongue

peewsnut & hilakaawksa

is what is voiced in the dark
& so what does it mean
asks the boy

as the moon
glows mouth open
to the unbearable
taste of ash
blown among the stars

that the boy learned

the ghosts trail

that milky way

is lit by the dying
brightly echoed

cewcewnim skit
so there had to be breathing

there had to be.

Translations:
kla swjust in sudden silence
'x?ox?ox? sound of bones and flesh tearing
hm kuppsound of a mouth breaking
kiktblood
silupeat or in the eye
iinI
iim eeyou (with emphasis)
timnepeat or in the heart, where the mind and felt emotions are housed. Also,
the name
of the Nez Perce creation site, Heart of the Monster, located in Kamiah, Idaho.
hwlekceI disappear
imicyour mom [more intimate] (as opposed to your mother)
peewsnutwithout tongue, or cut tongue, or removed of ones tongue
hilakaawksahe, she, or it is lit all through the night
cewcewnim skitthe ghosts trail / the Milky Way