To: fRhEaks@cyberbuss.com
Subject: BM poem
Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 01:11 PM
Black Rock Desert was the destination,
Headed for a weekend of good times and recreation.
What I got was so much more -
But, wait, we're just at the door -
These lessons take time
To infiltrate your mind.
So we'll start from the beginning…
In my head thoughts were spinning
As I gazed at the mountains afar
>From the window of my sister's red suburu
car.
All that I knew of the event
Were second-hand stories from a book that
had been lent.
This book, along with my ticket, to me my
sister had sent,
A sort of you're-graduated-so-now-you-can-really-learn-about-life
present.
She told me they call it Burning Man,
Named for the tall neon figure in the sand.
"They will burn him Saturday night,"
she said,
and off through the desert we sped.
After Gerlach and Empire we finally reached
the place.
Turning onto the playa with my sister's
smiling face,
She popped in Edie Brickell & the New
Bohemians
And, laughing, together we sang like crazy
demons.
Greeted by sparkling glittered insane ravers,
Drove to 8 o'clock and feet to meet our
new neighbors.
My first visions didn't go past my eyes,
Which were sun and travel weary from the
drive.
It wasn't really until that night
That I completely took in the sight
Of a beautiful, glowing, magical community
That laughed in the face of a made-up reality.
And after an evening of riding double
On a bicycle that tended to wobble,
Sitting in a mushroom tower,
Feeling its tremendous power,
Smoking some hash,
Visiting a shrine for Johnny Cash,
Making way for the motorized couch,
Waiting out the rain in an Elvis tent, I
crouched
Thinking Toto, this is nothing like home,
And biking across the playa we roamed,
Amazed by the sculptures of chrome.
We cheered at the Thunderdome,
Got lost in a maze,
And I knew I was about to reach a new phase.
This experience was going to teach me about
community,
About people, about life, about love, about
beauty.
And that it did in many ways
Through energized nights and dusty days.
The people I met were what made it all work
-
This experience and how it changed my whole
outlook.
I first encountered the Cyberbuss folk
Who lifted the world with the energy every
time they spoke.
They were friendly and offered a game of
Rock-Swivel & Bob,
So we camped next to them and added to the
mob.
Their names have escaped me but their faces
remain,
Except Sam, Rob, and Gamitone I remember
their names.
Others I met under the Central Camp dome
While sipping on frothy cappuccino foam.
Like the suspicious man who was writing
to his boyfriend:
"I'm sorry to tell you, but this relationship
must end."
He was sitting at a table, smoking a cigarette,
and then
He smiled and finally set down his money-sign
pen.
There was Rupert, who shared his nitrous
with us
As we sat on the seats in his comfy RV bus.
On his hat was a patch of black and white
thread,
“Give me head till I'm dead,"
it said.
His wife Sunny was her own rockstar
As she danced in the glowing ejaculating
car.
And then there was Shad, who introduced
me to these two -
I think he impacted me more than he knew
Through our long chats under the mid-morning
sun
And the evenings spent together, full of
good times and fun.
He had a smile that made my heart flutter,
My knees go weak and my words begin to stutter.
And before long in his arms I was held,
Into the deep pool of his eyes I fell,
And waking together to the lull of the wind,
We wondered what the coming day would bring.
Outside was my sister Jamie -
Beautiful, intelligent, the star of the
family.
She was recovering from her own personal
tragedy,
Pushed down by a man she had loved madly.
Almost done healing, she had learned so
much -
This experience, together, brought us closer
and in touch.
As we fought through traffic to get back
to the city,
We discussed the experience and felt pity
That the beauty of people their heart
and their soul
Can so easily be stifled by our culture's
control.
And we vowed we would not return to the
norms of society,
We would instead live in the world of a
true reality
Full of love and compassion and people who
would not shriek
When we finally decide to release our inner
freak.
