Still Here
Ram Dass
"His is not a lack of consciousness.
Rather, I think of it as an innocence ---
an innocence of experience.
Will he be saying the same thing
after ten years in his new body?"

Hidden Witness
African-American Images
From the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War
"They are like antique 78's cut in acetate, by a needle
set a-vibrating by the sepia voices of Enrico Caruso,
Tita Ruffo, and Amelita Galli-Curci."

BRIEF REVIEWS
The Boy in the Lake,
In the Land of White Death,
The War Against Boys

ARTICLES
Two of Our Most Popular
Fatty
"'Name's Arbuckle,' he said,
'Roscoe Arbuckle. Call me Fatty!
I'm with a stock company. I'm a funnyman and an acrobat.
But I could do good in pictures. Watcha think?'"
Alfred Jarry
"Contrary to Einstein's assertion,
perhaps we'll find that in the anti-world
God not only plays dice,
he spells his name backwards."

READINGS
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Inaugural
"FDR's Inaugural address electrified the nation.
Frances Perkins said it was like a great revival meeting.
People in the crowd wept. Raymond Moley said,
Well, he's taken the ship of state and turned it right around.
It changed everything, said another,
and she spoke for millions."

The Hindoo Matchstick
"If I put a match in my ash-tray
he patters in at once, picks it out,
and bears it off to the rubbish-heap.
But not, of course, without my permission."

POETRY
Moonsong
"Apollo 8 cost a fortune, but no one minded
because the astronauts were Protestant
they read the Bible from the moon
astounding and delighting every Christian
and on their return Pope Paul VI gave them his blessing."

Medicine Woman
"white women come into my shop
and ask me to bless their houses
(what's wrong with them, I want to ask)
name their grandchildren
(do I know your daughters?)
blow some smoke around
say some words, do
whatever it is you do
we want someone spiritual."