traded her shotgun in for
a parlor derringer, before the
Brothel Inspector burned down
the brothel, a crime of passion said
to have infuriated her, an old rhyme from
the Gold Rush days, "The miners came in
forty-nine, the whores in fifty-one, they rolled
upon the bar room floor and made the native son."

her whore was a farmer's
daughter with no other way
to make a living along the frontier,
the railroad men hung their red brakeman's
lanterns outside the door when engaged with
her whore, the woman she fell in love with,

the Brothel Inspector,
not so different from the
Madam, made the job for
herself to control the red light
district, wore her Brothel Inspector
badge for the Old West government
collected her pay, she planned to burn
the bordello to the ground one day, Midnight
in Montgomery, she wrote out her resignation,
put flame to her resignation letter, threw it in the
wastebasket and tossed it into the side of the brothel
with her whore lying naked in their bed, her soiled dove
fled out the backdoor, stole a horse at the livery stable, put miles between the Brothel Inspector and the law,

in St. Joseph, Missouri,
wanted dead or alive, the
former Brothel Inspector steps
down off her horse, the pawn shop
bridle, saddle, and reins her whore
pawned along the way led her to her
crime of passion, her soiled dove inside
a room above the Pony Express, her once
beautiful face now scarred from the smallpox
epidemic, which Sweetwater westernizes their
lives, outlaw women's lives are as much social as
they are sexual, characters with a nostalgic pull, parlors, rooms of harlots, a saloon to enjoy a drink and a sexual encounter...{Sage Sweetwater, firebrand}


Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist

Midnight in Montgomery Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater
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