To the Artist's Page                     To our home page

To James Lineberger's previous piece     To James Lineberger's next piece

Patti Smith Takes a Meeting with Stanley Bard

Says this
is not Robert's idea Says that's him
Robert out in 
the lobby he's sick but it's not serious, just trench 

mouth 
Says they've got no money and no place
to stay but they're going to be 
stars Says if Bard turns his back on them it will be his

red wagon
and she has the portfolio to prove 
it better than your Rauschenberg better than de Kooning 
paintings and poems and collages he can hang 

in the lobby or squirrel 
away in his private collection Says her mother raised 
her as a Jehovah's 
Witness and he being a Jew will probably understand this 

that when she works 
in her art it is like with Moses she holds hands with 
God Says when she
is writing she sits at the typewriter and types until she feels 

sexy then she goes
and masturbates to get high then 
types some
more from that higher place Says but I'm not

getting any younger
and I'm kinda in a rush I don't have the strength to take too long becoming 
a star so whichever room you got
it don't matter what but 

the one where Thomas Wolfe stayed would be so Rimbaud 
so cool Shows 
him a black and white glossy of Robert's rectum with a whip
snaking out of it Says don't 

look for mysteries it's nothing symbolic here 
but if there's a devil this is the devil's 
asshole Says here see his
minions

Handing him some of Robert's S&M 
stuff men gagged blind-
folded and hogtied and a really up close shot of a mutilated bleeding 
penis Says so Bauhaus aren't they so 

Verlaine Says 
she herself may not look very artistic at this particular 
moment but her tits 
are larger than he might imagine for such 

a skinny 
broad and sometime when he has the time he can examine
them up close and wrap them 
around his hard cock and fuck her the way he'd like to fuck his wife if only

she were more artistic Says all the cash 
they have is three dollars and twenty four cents but she has 
a job now 
at Scribner's where if she doesn't make enough 

she can always 
take it out of the register so how can he lose Says she can read 
his palm Says she has the gift 
of prophecy 

because of the numerous 
times she has followed in her father's footsteps and been kidnapped 
by entities from other worlds who have performed
unspeakable atrocities on 

her person which 
if she only had a place of her own like that room where
Thomas Wolfe used to live she could transform into the most outrageous cum 
flick of all time and if he wanted 

to invest in it they 
might even film it right here think of that Stanley and with 
her to show him the ropes
he could probably act in it himself become an artist like her and Robert instead of forever 

ripping people 
off and stealing their life's work to pay the rent maybe even get his name 
on the marquee only don't tell 
Robert better let her handle it because Says Robert hates Jews almost as much 

as he does niggers except niggers 
have bigger dicks and make excellent studies because they never have to wait 
for wood Says but don't look so glum 
Stanley just because Robert is queer it don't mean we have to all be one 

or Catholics either Says 
but if you 
had ever seen a geek bite the head off a chicken
 you would know Jesus 

had to die for somebody's sins 
even Jews Stanley 
even a Iron Range messiah like Dylan even 
a greedy little cooze like you



To the top of this page