Page 168

By Jack Joseph Smith

Shuned Now that in America I know nothing but death When I was in a foreign' PLACE Every one died all the time Money was slight enough Crossing seas for beer Those who have been there are laughing when they read me Those who have not,, or pretended I guess laugh also I suppose hurt and trouble should not be mixed up But I think they should

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem contrasts American knowledge of death with a foreign PLACE where death felt constant, then turns laughter, travel, hurt, and trouble into a test of what suffering means.

The handwritten PLACE sharpens the line from vague foreignness into a physical location. The final insistence that hurt and trouble should be mixed keeps the poem from becoming a clean comparison.

Claude

Shuned (sic). Now in America I know nothing but death. When in a foreign place everyone died all the time — money slight enough, crossing seas for beer. Those who have been there laugh when they read me. Hurt and trouble shouldn't be mixed up — but I think they should.