Riders Holocaust: The Sundance Wives

ash under the hooves
the fire razed duplicity
leather smells satan's saddle
bridle and reins guided by the
prairie doves the sage grouse kin
of feather quills signed ink fired the
preacher in the month of october the
wife walked toward us with her canvas
and water colors tucked under her arm
supported by a community bottle of whiskey

wagons turned on their sides
smoldering commerce flour and coffee
sugar kegs turned to caramel and bibles to
plural of phoenix phoenīcēs The Sundance Wives
rise from the ashes building their commerce from
powder kegs and saloon gambling paraphernalia stacks
of hundred dollar chips roulette spinning polygamy turning
heads putting the spin on red hot gossip take your turn wife
number two

mural of buffalo queened
and a paint can unmanned dripping
the color of fame that set the prairie aflame
satan's last ride white horse prophecy its name

the stories creamier than
the butter churn the daughters
told over bread at the supper table
all hell was breaking loose and they
could expect an education tonight that
got more fiery the more the Mason jars of
whiskey emptied of their amber intoxicant   
guitar strings replaced with horsehair the
instrument that plays hot rumors true

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, celebrity firebrand lesbian novelist