Deborah was a Catholic girl,
she held out to the bitter end
Carla was a different type,
she's the one who put it in
Mary was a black girl,
and I was afraid of a girl like that
Susan painted pictures sitting down
****like the Buddha sat****

Reno was an aimless girl, --should be-- Reno was a nameless girl
a geographic memory
Cathy was a Jesus-freak,
she liked that kind of misery
Vicky had this special way
of turning sex into a song
****Kamala who couldn't sing,****
kept the beat and kept it strong

Xylla was an archetype,
the voodoo queen the queen of rap
Joan thought men were second best
to masturbating in the bath
Sherri was a feminist,
she really had that gift of gab
Kathleen's point of view was this:
take whatever you can grab

Seattle was another girl
who left her mark upon the map
Karen liked to tie me up,
and left me hanging by a strap
Jeannie had this nightclub walk
that made grown men feel underage
Mary Ellen who had a son
said "I must go," but finally stayed

Gloria the last taboo
was shattered by her tongue one night
Mimi brought the taboo back
and held it up before the light
Marilyn who knew no shame,
was never ever satisfied
Julie came and went so fast,
she didn't even say good-bye

Well Rhonda had a house in Venice,
lived on brown rice and cocaine
Patty had a house in Houston,
shot cough syrup in her veins
Linda thought her life was empty,
filled it up with alcohol
Katherine was much too pretty,
she didn't do that shit at all

Uh-uh Not Katherine

Pauline thought that love was simple,
turn it on and turn it off
Jean-Marie was complicated,
like some French film-maker's plot
Gina was the perfect lady,
always kept her stockings straight
Jackie was a rich punk-rocker,
silver spoon and a paper plate

Sarah was a modern dancer,
lean pristine transparency
Janet wrote bad poetry
in a crazy kind of urgency
Tanya Turkish liked to fuck
while wearing leather biker boots
Brenda's strange obsession
****was for certain vegetables and fruit****

****Roweena was an artist's daughter,****
the deeper image shook her up
Dee-dee's mother left her father,
took his money and his truck
Debbie-Rae had no such problems,
perfect Norman Rockwell home
Nina sixteen had a baby,
left her parents lived alone
Bobbie joined a new-wave band,
and changed her name to Bobbie-sox
Eloise who played guitar,
sang songs about whales and cops
Terri didn't give a shit,
****was just a nihilist****
Ronnie was much more my style,
she wrote songs just like this
Jezebel went forty days
drinking nothing but Perrier
Dinah drove her Chevrolet
into the San Francisco bay
Judy came from Ohio,
she's a Scientologist
****Amiranta here's a kiss,****
I chose you to end this list

Eighty-eight lines about forty-four women