The Sickle at Timothy Hollow

reaper crossed cultures
cut the Amish hay at night
stumbled over his own grim
shadow

1843 driver of
a hansom cab two wheels
reins passing over the cab
the driver smelled fresh cut hay

reaper splashed hartshorn
solution over the Amish field
ammonia withered crop obtained
from the horn of a stag

religion bore a grudge
conformity set in stone commandments
hardened ether to rebellion

hail fire and palm kernels
brimstone and slashed palimpsest
parchment revival at the ginhouse

the sickle at Timothy Hollow
flying fur of the fitchet
polecat and reaper dance the death

polygamy under God's canopy
lesbian choreographed feat
tongues to wet the field

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist