On Grief, Loss, and Homecoming: How Beer-Breath Kisses Remembers Reservation Life in Eastern Oklahoma

Beer-Breath Kisses by Damon McKinney is a short prose chapbook that highlights reservation life in Eastern Oklahoma. Told in twelve flash and micro pieces, McKinney paints the setting of small-town living and accomplishes memorable rich details by interweaving his own family narratives throughout the chapbook. From the depiction of the run-down, but lively bars, to the worn-out, but well-loved pool tables, to the tired, overworked, but close-knit families, McKinney immerses the reader in the grittiness and tough-love community that makes up the reservation. 

The ordering of the stories worked well—the beginning paints a sense of nostalgia, what life looks like on the reservation, from hearing the coyotes yapping in the distance to catching crawdads at the creek behind Granddad’s house while the mothers dance and party on the weekends at the bar. As the stories progress, a sense of loss and sadness starts to seep through the page as readers encounter death, addiction, pain, and loss.  

McKinney’s prose is sharp, raw, and packs a punch. It’s truly remarkable when an author is able to tell a story in one paragraph, as shown in the microfiction stories “Independence Day” and “Corner Pocket.” Not to mention, “Black Eye” which is told in exactly four sentences. That alone is proof that McKinney is in full control of his prose and is able to fully immerse the reader into reservation life with his descriptions of the unbearable heat, the red dirt roads, the beer-breath kisses that linger on skin.

In this article published in Reckon Review, McKinney talks more about reservation life and how it impacts the stories he tells today. I’d recommend reading the article after reading the prose chapbook to spot similarities between his real-life narratives and the stories in Beer-Breath Kisses. At the end of the article, McKinney states: 

“I write to tell stories on the margin of society, the flyover states, a hole on the bible belt. Where scrublands hid moonshine stills and meth labs and the preachers have second families a town over. Where I ran around the pow wow grounds with my cousins looking for a little bit of fun, going to the youth dances at the community building, and trying to swim in a packed swimming pool. Going back to the reservation is a homecoming. Going to the tribal cemetery to see the ancestors, having a conversation with ghosts, and when the sun goes down, sing honor songs. We sang until sunrise. I still sing those songs.” – Damon McKinney in “Where My Words Come From”  

McKinney accomplishes this sense of “Homecoming” in Beer-Breath Kisses. The reader is fully immersed in reservation life and in the lives of the children who want to run free, run wild, but are in a town so small they only have three places they can go to: “the creek behind Grandpa’s house, the swimming pool, or to the Wayside.” 

And at the Wayside, all sorts of things can happen, from an auntie fighting a woman while wearing flip-flops with the help of her sisters to the kids begging for quarters to play the jukebox and a few rounds of pool. To read these stories is to feel the pain when a loved one takes their life in a janitor’s closet and to feel the sense of community when everyone comes together on Sunday for family dinners. 

Living in a time with ongoing book bans and increased censorship in the South makes reading a prose chapbook like Beer-Breath Kisses all the more necessary. To support the work of Indigenous authors and to read their words is one of the most efficient ways to combat the attempts to silence their voices.  

Beer-Breath Kisses is a homecoming story and McKinney brings us along for the ride, to witness the past and to honor those who are no longer here. When the ride ends, the words linger, asking readers to remember the stories of those who came from a small town where the Earth is red.  

About the Publisher:  

Founded by Michael and Casie Dodd, Belle Point Press is a regional press based in Fort Smith, Arkansas that highlights literature of the American Mid-South. You can order McKinney’s Beer-Breath Kisses chapbook from their website here, and if you’re still craving more of his voice and stories on reservation life, add on his microchap which has an additional story titled “Cushing.” You won’t regret it.