Page 145

By Jack Joseph Smith

Tits I tried not to say a word Not even about saying something Then somewhereca child fell While I was thinking I was feeling it out when I said I did not ThenI looked back and told them I did I had little to mention im my teethh And though hurt never stays the same Nothing I knew of escaped You can't catch it, but when your bad,, you will try like hell to touch it You will never let it be looked at What is not see about the quiet breed

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page moves from refusing to speak into a remembered fall, hurt held in the teeth, and the compulsion to touch or expose what cannot be caught.

The corrected transcript clarifies the poem's sequence: silence, denial, looking back, and then the bodily residue of hurt. Its strongest pressure is the contradiction between hiding pain from view and repeatedly returning to it.

Claude

Tits (sic). Tried not to say a word — not even about saying something. Somewhere a child fell while he was thinking. The bad try like hell to touch what they can't catch. You will never let it be looked at — what is not seen about the quiet breed.