I found these 13 year old emails explaining how and when
On Your Knees Please was written
and what it meant.

From: RTD001::SSmith 13-Sep-1989 10:02:06.53
Subj: rote me pome bout woodstock generation 20 yrs later

Woodstock 89

Lost degenerate's
breast whipped intention
horseradished n foreskin enfurled
now schemes
clitoral dreams
and corporate/corporal retention

Lies lie your why and my
rubber stamped existence
live like the less
don't focus, don't rest
suck teat or lick longed extention


From: SOC::Hartung 14-Sep-1989 08:26:42.97
Subj: pome

Don' unnerstan pome.
It's about you?
Reads nice.
Care to explain yourself?


From: RTD001::SSMITH 14-SEP-1989 08:49:13.08
Subj: pome

iz bout the hippie flour power woodstock generation. their sexual and idealistic innocence was seen by society as degenerate; and since they've since sold out, they've become lost degenerates. their best wished intentions were for peace and free love and there were alot of bare breasts at woodstock so i made it breast whipped. they have traded their 60's ideals for the corporate rat race, dream now of commercial and physical security. they've joined the group, lost their uniqueness, live like the rest which is less than they were. the lie they've joined by selling out makes a lie of their life. the last line means they've got to kiss ass and suck up to the boss to reach their schemes.

lost degenerate is also a sly pun upon allen ginsberg's poem "Howl" which begins "I've seen the best minds of my generation" lost, and the beat generation is also known as the lost generation.

horseradished n foreskin enfurled = innocence in oblique reference to knights in shining armor (amore?) on their horses and ready/raring/redhot to go (radished) with their ladies' scarves as banners flying enfurled (foreskin enfurled). plus horseradish is a spice and their flowerpower spice of life is now lost. at the same time, horseradished enfurled is an engorged erection, just the opposite of innocence.

rubber stamped refers to the loss of innocent sex in the 60s and our now having to wear condoms to protect against aids / and of course our existence is rubber stamped off the assembly line.

there's more of course but i write them, don't explain them.
plus in poems you can say it shorter.
and yes i guess it's about me
about what i fear i'll become
and what i fear i'm doing
and not doing
but mainly it's about all of us and our non heroic lives.