It was in the year of "Far-Into" that the Extremists took total control. They'd been complaining about almost everything for a long time, but, not to be totally uncreative in the attitude of man's hallucinatory plight. They finally hit upon an untried and, to them, a worthwhile oppressive manipulation. The subject of clothes: who wears them, the control of capitalism as a symptom, wars that are separated by these threatening fabrics, and the great humility, and public shame such garments brought upon the bearers and wearers. These were the chief arguments used for the abolition when it was brought before the United States Senate, and shut into silence any legitimate causes to delay any possible legislation. The theology swiftly became The Naked Law.

    This affected every human being in the country, being number 9699 in the Constitution, thus making it Federal rather than a state choice. Some liked it but some did not. More sex crimes were reported as a result than had ever been dealt with before. The older inhabitants, who resided in certain communities for years, felt deeper humility than the Extremists. But there were also those groups, giving yet another reason for the clinching argument, who stood up to applaud the law for protecting every man, woman and child's freedom of speech, as promised by the very First Amendment.

    For the most part, private individuals, who led ordinary daily work lives, were not bothered by huge difficulties one would expect from unlimited nudity. In fact, more weddings were performed within the first year of the law. More people came to work on time, and employment reached its highest percentage rate in history. There was more free sex, but it was no longer considered a bad thing, and sexual intercourse was taken more seriously as just another work function rather than a time waster.

    Traffic was held up less. Newspapers, specially rags, were hard hit at first, since there was less to talk about; and elections finally concentrated on the issues. This was all good news to all almost everyone. There was one Woman, who, driving her car through the hour and a half of slow rush hour traffic, fell in love with herself while killing time by looking at herself in the rear view mirror.

    It was love at first sight. She never really noticed herself before. Every day it would be that she'd wake up, put on clothes, go to work, come home, eat, listen to old radio shows, take off her clothes, go to bed, wake up, put on clothes. But with new sight from old eyes, she was finally awake unadorned and knew that it was herself that she'd want to spend the rest of her life with.

    After a strange and sultry courtship, the Woman proposed to herself and was married, the next day at the Justice of the Peace. The practice had been legal for many years, as it was put in the State legislature nearly four years ago.

    The ceremony performed, she kissed herself, and jumped straight in her car to rushed off for her one week island honeymoon.

    "Happy, darling?"

    "Yes," she answered herself. "Let's stop for a bite."

    She ate quickly, then on to the plane for the Isle of Aspen. It was three days of sand skiing, shopping, and seeing trashy movies in an all-night theater. On the fourth day, she decided to make to herself, what she thought was the final commitment. On that fourth night, she had passionate, slow, and meaningful love with herself, and for the first time felt what love really should be, and was, to her. She'd been married once before, many years ago, but no man, not even those she'd fucked at work, had ever made her feel like a beautiful glass vibration of love. No one but herself.

    It wasn't long after that, that the first of three children was born. The first, from that fourth night's seduction, was a girl. The second was a year later, a boy. A year and three months after that she had a second girl. The first born's name was Sky. The boy was named Earth. The second daughter was named Sea.

    As the years passed on, the new generation knew no shyness, within the codes of undress and nature. This greatly improved education, though, made studying harder once puberty set in. As the three children grew, into this odd time of puberty, the girls noticed a remarkable difference between themselves and their brother Earth.

   "Look at what he's got!" yelled Sea. "It's amazing. I saw one just like it in a - catalog."

  "Catalog?" Sky whispered, blushing. "You mean, with - clothes?"

   "Yes!"

    And they laughed and laughed at Earth until he was ashamed at his own difference. Endowment of nature meant little compared to an acceptance complex.

   "Least I've got one!" he bravely pointed out. "What you got?"

    They were his sisters but there was confidence within unity; and the girls laughed. The Woman continued to live with and love herself, and tried to be a good parent to all. But Earth doubted himself gravely, since he noticed that the Woman was just like his sisters, and he was afraid that she too might side with them. Rather than face the possible threat of Woman turning against him, one day after school Earth went out behind the shed and beat himself to death with a large stone.

    When Woman returned home from work that day, she asked where Earth was. They didn't know. She looked all over for him. She found the corpse in the back yard behind the shed. For the days and weeks that followed, the Woman sobbed continuously and ate almost nothing. The daughters felt so sad and guilty about perhaps being the cause of their brother's demise. The three could not bear to bury him and so left him peacefully in the dirt patch of Earth's basketball court, located in the middle of the back yard.

    After five weeks of seeing their mother in such self-torture, Sky and Sea finally admitted their shameful acts of ridicule, and were forgiven with a simple silent smile.

    Woman spent ten weeks, sick and almost starved to death with grief. Finally, she came to her senses and realized what had to be done if she was to ever know happiness again. She called her friend at the State Department, division of the Lottery. Within one week, from a secret arrangement between two ex-co-workers, the Woman was the faithful recipient of a $41 million jackpot. With half of this, the Woman bought a vast quantity of clothes on the black market,to clothe herself and her daughters, and to give to any persons or organizations who needed or wanted them, if only for warmth. Such items of distaste were pornography and therefore rare and expensive.. This the Woman did as a measure of justice and in loving memory of Earth.

    With the remaining half of her fortune, the Woman and her family moved to a remote land, renting a mountain in the clouds. They lived in a huge cabin and the Woman taught her daughters herself, and they loved her even more as the years crept by. They preached a world of harmony and fellowship to those passing by the land, and to any group that established itself as wanting to help the community. The Woman and her daughters did this for five years, but the Woman had a secret. Even from Sea and Sky did she keep this secret; she practiced black magic. She did this for the entire five years, learning through a mail-order supplier specializing in the mysteries of the occult; learning and growing in her power. Hoping to bring life to her son again was her sole purpose. She even sent for his body. It was being sent by UPS over the ocean, a long way to her. Her magical powers grew in strength hoping that one day soon she would restore Earth to his deserved destiny.

    Tragedy! Despair claimed the Woman's heart quickly as she learned from the early morning news that a cargo craft, with a crew of six, collided with another plane in mid-air the night before. All contents and remains were lost, scattered over the Ocean.

    Sky and Sea, who worked day and night with their mother in the name of peace. The Woman took time away from them to practice her black art. When the Woman revealed the actual contents of the doomed flight, they were frightened and sad for her. It was sometime during this, that they fell in love with the Woman. All three quickly made love in such a frenzy of passion, legs deposited where elbows were usually kept, etc. The living organisms which were conceived by the black magic Woman shot forth from her lustful loins with such an awe of power that to this day, whispers the blossoming Sea and Sky. That is the reason all nine bodies are revolving with such omnipotent force: to give their brother Earth the illusion of celestial life.

Ben Ohmart has started writing a series of adult fairy tales as a diversion from his poetry. You can contact him at findline@mindspring.com