Trust in the Lord but Keep Your Powder Dry

"Out here you better have a gun, and a gun in the wagon ain't good for nothin'. I believe what the old Quaker said, 'Trust in the Lord, but keep your powder dry."  Louis L'Amour (The Quick and the Dead)

spent our
loafing days
in the gold mining
town, devotees of feminine
survival, knowing if donkeys run
like a horse, they'd fall so they turn
and fight instead, same with us, we've
never lamed one; mine, Peppercorn knows
brined turkey, I'm not a self-basting archer, brown
sugar and rosemary leaves, Peppercorn gets her head
in the turkey cavity where I hid her carrot before I even get
it into the oven,

Clove, the other one
has a religious bray and
a knack to pray, but only on
Sunday,

we're proving
up our land to receive
a deed, taking advantage
of the homestead act, living
on top of one another in our 12-foot
by 14-foot shack raising hell and crops
improving our relationship for five years,

so when an outsider
rode in one day, buried
in the wagon in the loose hay
our gunpowder dry, Number Four
loaded shotshell hell and painted
a mural of a man no longer, the color
of blood upon the fencepost that predicted
the outcome, lines, cracks and knots prairie tarot,
artistry of prophecy depicted the polygamy trademark
brand, the godly logo, our powder is dry but we're not.

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist