Absaroka, cutthroats
swim in hordes, firebrand
crosses the trout stream to
Cody, her saddle shifts and
creaks, rancid air of buffalo
slaughter reeks - vision soars
over the mountain peaks, sabotaged
wagon wheel with a weak linch pin flies
with the eagle, she spurs the horse, gold
dust paints Jeremiah Johnson's mirage, no
remorse, something's about to go down, 

the streets
of Cripple Creek,
the liquor swillers,
poker players and
whores watch you
remove the peel of an
apple skin in one piece
with a single nonstop twirl
of your stag handle Bowie knife,

demonstrate to
those who judge
the apple peeler's
attraction to the same
sex that we are one cut
from the same core, bullets
rip in The Sundance Wives Saloon,

The Sundance Wives
scoop up a handful of black
flathead wrought iron nails from
the nail keg to build a bridge to close
the gap of this century's bigotry,

outlaws - goldminers - the
firebrand's Wives fire off Colts,
baptize the brass spittoons, good,
bad, "talk about my woman ugly, spill
blood on her quill - we'll haunt you in your
cold grave - pussy is a great scene in the buffalo
era, you put her head in a hangman's noose in the
gallows, you'd best make that rope strong enough to
hold back the Nez Perce Appaloosas" -

firebrand rides
through Mt. Pisgah 
cemetery, warhoops
and scalps, she lopes
through the aspen and  
mesquite-patch sage, takes
her name from it,

whiskey cost
two-bits a pint,
peach nipple brandy
even less, saloons line
the streets, buzzards looking
for something to die, swearing
soiled doves shout for bed customers
from the brothel doorways, plains rifles
and .56 calibers, the firebrand's Wives just
two inches above her navel, fall upon each
other in hard times, f***ing, "I've heard about
it plenty," says the firebrand, "lured you with gold
dust," paints Bobby Womack's mirage, no remorse,
something's about to go down,

the hat-waving
vigilantes and hoboes,
admiring onlookers, filmmakers,
"we wanna buy her" -

lugging her tired
saddle, the firebrand
rests, that is the way the
story went ...


Copyright 2006, 2007, 2010, and beyond...Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist