Seventh Row Ethics

I would take
that noisy mechanical
chain link belt off the cherry
picker on wheels pulled behind
the hay truck, but that weak link
reminds me of the seventh row ethics
of stacking hay, the bailer set at seventy
pounds, heavy enough for the sermon to dry,
light enough for pagan altar-grazing black sheep,

what does it
hurt to send a
haybale up the
mechanical elevator,
heaven's just a sin away
and what the hell, those that
come into the barn see a perfect
stack, rows so much like church pews,
but it's the swather that cut the rattlesnake's
head off and baled it for satan's herd, well hell
we saw it coming all tied up with orange bailing twine,
hunter's orange, and the deer knows the crosshairs are noisier
than any chain link belt on a hay elevator.

Copyright Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist