For a brief while many years ago
Patti Smith and I worked
in the Strand Bookstore at the same time.
I did get the chance to see her perform
with Lenny Kaye playing guitar
on a rooftop high above Grand Street,
but our main interaction happened
when she strode up to me in the store
and thrust the Caedmon recording
of James Joyce reading into my hands.
“Someone told me I looked like him
and gave me this–that’s bullshit!
I heard you like him, so it’s yours!”
I still have that record in my collection.