http://www.authorsden.com/adstorage/29292/
manwhoshotlibertyvalance.mid

crouched behind the
golden corn stalks, she 
pointed the shotgun barrel
at his last fall harvest, watching
Liberty Valance thrash the maize,
spitting tobacco juice into the eye of
the grasshopper,

his Lazy V,
L/< branding iron
seered her thigh more
than twenty years ago when
Liberty Valance tortured her sexual
preference, "so no woman will want you,"

wearing lavender gloves
she placed his loaded shotgun
upon a homemade suicide tripod,
tied a piece of bailing twine on the trigger,
tied the other end on the cornstalk that begged
to be thrashed next, understand he was about to
take his own life,

taking his last pull
from his whiskey bottle,
Liberty Valance stepped on
a rattler twined around the cornstalk,
he swung his sickle, the twine pulled the
death trigger, headlines read, "Liberty Valance
in a maize of whiskey dies from suicide-rigged trigger,"

The woman who shot
Liberty Valance, she was
the bravest of them all, prettied
up the brand, covered it with a cornstalk
tattoo, sometimes the outline of a rattler appears
if you are ever close enough to trigger her button to see...


Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist