Independence Day in the Buggy Shed

occupation marked
on a sign in the beginning
of the driveway, the horses
driving a flatbed bringing in the
hay, women follow the bible and
the plow, decrees tacked upon the
farm fences, finalized divorces, free
on Independence Day,

silver pail of
hard lemonade
contrary to agrarian
church Dutch, tractor
on steel wheels, but no
rubber allowed, she undoes
her braid, lets her hair out, kicks
the shoes off her heels, she has
no dry goods to sell, she sure as
hell isn't socializing about the weather
or tradition, her breasts come out of their
ethnic heritage endowed, the harness she
shunned before is now worshiped leather,

communing with god
on Independence Day in
the buggy shed, the event
can't be recorded, no video
or television allowed,

communication by
lightning rod religion's
enlightening, she's gay,
imagine what you see in the
straw, where her head is at, it
isn't baled in the hay, it doesn't
depend on tobacco, wheat, soybean
or corn cash crop, the stimuli for her
community is posted, occupation marked
on a sign in the beginning of the driveway,
Heading a New Way.

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist