Picasso would have been a good Plumber


Kofi Fosu Forson


We met Charlie’s Tits and Beer talk art me Tony and that fat Chinese

Girls here were shot unlike those who put on a show dolled up and shit

They lined up on stage just a little higher from the floor four five or six

Otherwise these girls got a refresher course in male boneheadedness

Tony and I weren’t about gawking our bodies faced each other drinking

He loved mathematics I had a thing for film so we shot the shit on movies

The fat Chinese facing the stage brought up the name Peter Greenaway

Tony said Greenaway I said Grenaway he disagreed we left it at that

Peter Greenaway British filmmaker who used everything including shit

Like the opening scene in The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover

Somehow standing in a titty bar talking Peter Greenaway made sense

These dirty girls dancing half naked were a comment on class struggle

Businessman in suit flashing dollars an example of money the economy

Turning around to see flickering lights on stage flesh of girls gyrating

Tall brunette walks up to me Tony and the Chinese part she says hello

Girl from Chicago Charlie she’s not Charlie in Charlie’s Tits and Beer

Homesick worn out bit depressed wondering what she’s doing here

Loving that Cheshire grin on my face wanting in our eyes locked up

Couldn’t pull the dickhead charm kept kissing ass playing innocent

Once in a while without her noticing I would check out the girls

Word got around about Charlie’s Tits and Beer had them coming in

One night I brought a friend macho not in that way he talked smack

Sat there confident swigging away pointing to one girl after the other

He became a regular started tipping bit more girls would take notice

Each time the dancers took a break he brought one over to the bar

Made everything special handled their drinks did some small talk

Went as far as to get into their business pay for rent buy them shit

Didn’t take long before he began cruising other titty bars picking up

Tony and I were theater people he did sound for independent films

Hung around bars the local girls checking them out hoping for love

I had quit college to be the hundredth Picasso of a hundred Picassos

Artists don’t make it he said Picasso would have been a good plumber

Spent some time alone drawing and painting the strippers at Charlie’s

Thinking if I never sell a painting or fail to be recorded in art history

At least most people will see my work say man he fucked a lotta girls