Posey

KL Lyons

I am reading a book of poetry
by Alexander Posey
called Song of the Oktahutche,
and all I know about the Oktahutche
is that it’s a river in Oklahoma.

In the footnotes of certain poems,
someone has taken care
to inform the reader
whether any transcripts
of it said poem exist
from Posey’s lifetime,
You see, his wife Minnie,
“sometimes altered
her husband’s poems,
[so] this version
may not reflect his wishes.”

These footnotes remind me
that Posey didn’t live long,
that he was, in fact, younger
than I am now when he died,
and I’ve read three poems
about rivers before I recall
that in the end
it was a river
who swept him away.

I’m almost done with the book
when I finally see
that the Oktahutche
is known by most as
the North Canadian River.

I google it, and sure enough,
it’s the very same river
that would not let him pass.

So this Song of the Oktahutche
is, amongst other things,
a song for pulmonary edema,
and I can’t help but wonder
if I too have already written a poem
for whatever is going to kill me.

KL Lyons is a writer from Tulsa, OK and a citizen of the Muscogee Nation. Their work has previously appeared in ANMLY, Eye to the Telescope, and Room Magazine. You can find them in the kitchen, drinking the last of your coffee, or on Twitter as @dystopialloon.

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