Vulgarities of the Gold Boom

stale perfume
and miner's sweat
they weren't telling
what else was in the room
poker has always been a way to gamble
away sin and wager friendships hefty bet
but I knew soul was sturdy in the boots welting
whiskey clean and pure drank in the vulgarities of
the gold boom

I always heard
everybody uses everybody
in those days a noose was promise
when you used a friend to get yourself out
your troubles just started hell dried up those
roads that were deadends bloody and muddy

fame worked overtime
cash register over at the
mercantile paid for the preacher
pew seats were cheap a dozen for a dime
if you wanted to listen if you believed her

I think
the whole thing
was intuition pairing
with piecemeal confession
wearing loose lips on the pale
covering lipstick those pretty lies
painting wealth they say is a color
easy on the eyes I'm trying to recall
who painted the harlot hanging behind
the bar in the saloon doc holliday said she
married young and squeezed huckleberries
to get the color think he called it faro blush and
it complimented the color of money "I spent time
with the whore up close her thighs and my nose
could sniff out a fortune whiskey is settling"

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, Celebrity firebrand lesbian novelist