Spontaneous Combustion of Linseed Oil on the Mattress

as girls
we knew the
rags soaked in
flaxseed oil ignited
spontaneously to our
need when we wanted
fire, quick match, as The
Sundance Wives it makes
our reason fluid, oil paintings
of the scenes of the Oath we took,

the luthier
uses linseed
oil to recondition
guitars and mandolins,
we are inscribed on the
stringed instruments fret
boards soaking our names
into the pores of the wood,

those who
hold the cricket
bat in their hand
are reminded of The
Sundance Wives, of the
raw linseed oil on the willow
wood bat handle, podshaving,
the art of hand-making cricket bats
not lost in the mist of time, the game
played The Sundance Wives in 1729
using shepherd's crooks, staffs with a
prounounced hook to catch sheep by the
leg or neck - our bandanas,

neck rags
soaked with
linseed oil piled
high - oxidation and
exothermic reaction accelerate
the temperature exceeding the rate
of heat dissipation, we're hot enough
to make the rags spontaneously combust,

the National Linseed Oil Trust of 1885,
its peers, Cotton Oil Trust, Lead Smeltering
Trust and Whiskey Trust; The Sundance Wives
Trust in spontaneous combustion of linseed oil
on the mattress.

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist