Quote from "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", by Tom Robbins

"With the destruction of the clockworks, that is, at the end of time, all rituals will be personal and idiosyncratic, serving not to unify a community/ cult in a common cause but to link each single individual with the universe in whatever manner suits him or her best.  Unity will give way to plurality in the Eternity of Joy, although, since the universe is simultaneously many and One, whatever links the individual to the universe will automatically link him or her to all others, even while it enhances his or her completely separate identity in an eternal milkshake unclabbered by time.  Thus, paradoxically, the replacement of societal with individual rituals will bring about an ultimate unity vastly more universal than the plexus of communal rites that presently divides peoples into unwieldy, agitating and competing groups."

Photos '87

22 Reasons Why My Hair Could Look Like This

1. Leukemia
2. Brain surgery
3. It's punk
4. It's hot
5. Protesting Nuclear Arms
6. Wanted to look like Annie Lennox
7. Head lice
8. It's the fashion in Paris
9. A friend played a joke on me while I was sleeping
10. Wanted to give myself a feeling of solidarity with the Nazi war camp victims
11. I'm an actress - played my last role as a Nazi war camp victim
12. Had that disease where you lose all your hair, and it's finally growing back
13. Member of a cult
14. Member of a demon-worshipping cult
15. Lost most of it in a freak accident
16. Lost most of it in a freak cuisinart accident
17. Just lost it
18. Stolen in New York
19. Accidentally caught fire
20. Watched too much TV
21. Neo-Nazi skinhead
22. I like it!

- 8/11/87

Merciless Ignorance

Merciless ignorance

just as simple as a walk away

as simple as innocence

with a little more moral decay

You amazing creature

once revealing,

now concealing

has it been that bad all along?

how you lie with a simple response

(there's nothing I love more

than getting close enough 

for lies)

lies?  oh no. . .

maybe you just picked up my trick

I warned you -

you persisted -

hurts, doesn't it?

how could I possibly say I don't need this?

you dream sleepily

you'll be here tomorrow

and the next day

and the next

I'll be gone tomorrow

and why console 

a lonely soul?

I'll move on to paradise

congratulations to yet another bad memory

I want to hate you, hate you

did I really do this to you?

what did I make you think?

SAY IT, GODDAMMIT

your silence is a lie

deep in the night

you're mercilessly innocent. . .

ignorant. . .

- April 18, 1987, A.D.

Un'man'ned

"I put in my vote today, citizens!!

I say, 'Yes!' to castration of the man

so worthy of late

of the terrible fate

of our city's new birth control plan!

"At our Mayor's request 

I have come to attest

to the fact that this man is a worm"

("Castrate him!  Castrate him!"

they cry in protest.

The accused starts to shiver and squirm)

"Just look at him, now

with those innocent eyes, ladies -

which of you would be upset

to find him caressing your hips and your thighs?

I was stupid -

I encouraged it!

"And to think that I

thought his animal drive

was particular interest in me!

All I was was a body -

no soul and no mind -

how stupid I was not to see!

"And how exciting the danger

of doing a thing

that would break all the rules in this place

but sex is so tempting

and passion so rare"

("But who was it this week?"

the people declare)

"He loves to be wanted and petted

and loved"

("But who will be next week?"

they push and they shove

and with angry red faces

he is pinned to the wall)

"No, not yet, citizens!

"Tell me, do you recall

that I left with a kiss

and came back to the cold

of an actor -

so frightened -

because I broke the mold?

"From the very first day,

he assumed I had come

to demand of him caring

and loving and some of the very long list

of what he's unequipped 

to provide to so lost

and so wanting a soul

"I did want him more

than his life could afford

and paid dearly for all of my hopes

but even now, in the end -

all I want is a friend -

and I find that he still cannot cope

"It has bent me to anger 

and fury and hate

just to think that this man and his sex

could have made 

such an impact on me

and I've seen him tease others

with a touch like so many

reserve for their lovers.

I will not stand for more

of this worm -

I implore you!

Let us all raise our hands

and we'll have him un'man'ned!!"

And the crowd - what an uproar! -

they carried him over

to the city's best surgeon

and the patient, in horror -

with a sigh and a cough

his ambition, cut off. . .

- March 30, 1987, A.D.

Meet the New Boss

The Institution -

I'll always hate -

comes in a different form,

this time.

Little whiny people

watch you,

tell you what to do

they talk talk talk

about rules and problems -

it's always you.

Because you, you -

you know who you are

you've been through these places

and you've learned to ignore

the authority that nibbles

and bites at your reality.

You take a step back

you do what you have to

but you can't pretend

it's "for the good of the company"

then, you become a slave

to their money.

You have a life

beyond this place, and the next

you learn to get by

nothing more, nothing less. . .

- March 27, 1987, A.D.

My Natural Disaster

You touched me

and my soul was on fire

fire that burned through promises

through priorities,

through to passion itself

It was a fire of destruction,

breaking me away

from him -

burning a path back to you

And then, you became a wall of stone - 

hands raised against me -

you looked away.

You are the only one

You are the last one

You are the whole of desire

You are the soul of the fire. . .

and I come to you again

you look away

What makes a stone so hard

that was once fire?

You'll burn again, won't you,

when I touch you?

and blaze your path of destruction

back to me?

- Feb. 16, 1987, A.D.