star fever, by patti smith
You people out there don't need to read this. I am just posting this here so I never lose track of this beautiful, marvelous prose.
star fever
by patti smith
[from a copy of Todd Rundgren's 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star, which includes a Patti "Band-Aid" poem. It's 3-1/4" by 12-1/2", the background is a pinkish bandaid, and the poem is printed in green ink, in her handwriting.]
They can not harm me
They can not harm me
They can only
burn out my eyes
beat my limbs
black and blue
legs cant run
hands cant play
face cant sing
cant sing cant say
They can not harm me
They can only
turn in my eyes
rip out my teeth
spit pure ivory
carve my face like a clock
alarm me clock clock me
bleed me scape goat me
chain me to a rock me
rock me rock me
clever as a fox me
brand a star on/my left shoulder
a star on my left
clever as a fox
my spirit lights
behind the boulder
holding to my name forever
Knowing I'll go on forever
Spirit laughing free as water
in a ring of fire
with its hair aflame
star fever
by patti smith
[from a copy of Todd Rundgren's 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star, which includes a Patti "Band-Aid" poem. It's 3-1/4" by 12-1/2", the background is a pinkish bandaid, and the poem is printed in green ink, in her handwriting.]
They can not harm me
They can not harm me
They can only
burn out my eyes
beat my limbs
black and blue
legs cant run
hands cant play
face cant sing
cant sing cant say
They can not harm me
They can only
turn in my eyes
rip out my teeth
spit pure ivory
carve my face like a clock
alarm me clock clock me
bleed me scape goat me
chain me to a rock me
rock me rock me
clever as a fox me
brand a star on/my left shoulder
a star on my left
clever as a fox
my spirit lights
behind the boulder
holding to my name forever
Knowing I'll go on forever
Spirit laughing free as water
in a ring of fire
with its hair aflame