Saloons, Whiskey, Pianos and Prostitutes

Thoreau planned
to turn his vast botanicals
into a book before he died,
the project undone, don't let
it happen to you,

huckleberry philosophy,
beware of all enterprises
which require new clothes,
pine boughs, water colors
and oils, dreammaker placing
botanical specimens in her raffia
cowgirl hat, Pat Benatar on her Ipod,
70s rock and she knows exactly when
plants open visiting dozens of times within
a fortnight so that she might know...that she
might know when she opens,

saloons in
the Wild West,
whiskey, pianos
and prostitutes, a
silo transformed into
varieties of butterflies,
adopt a brick, own a butterfly
in the painting, inside the silo
salmon swimming circles all heading....
heading in the same direction, I have that
brass compass here with me, I've had it for
years, it's now yours,

Thoreau planned
to turn his vast botanicals
into a book before he died,
the project undone, don't let
it happen to you.

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist