Page 194

By Jack Joseph Smith

Trouble I did not think twice I did not think once About what had never happened before About what had never happened before I did not think that death was a concurance I did not think the cause of death was a lapse of memory How could I do the same thing over How could I do the same thing over Now this is no cover up, No gloss Now this is loss

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This poem circles event, death, repetition, and memory until trouble stops being a cover-up or gloss and becomes pure loss.

The repeated lines matter. They make the page feel trapped inside the same damaged sequence it is trying to understand, while the handwritten `No gloss` sharpens the refusal of explanation.

Claude

'Trouble' enacts its own theme through repetition: the doubled lines 'About what had never happened before' and 'How could I do the same thing over' make the page stammer, so that the form repeats the very repetition it interrogates. The speaker disclaims foresight - 'I did not think twice / I did not think once' - and resists easy explanation, refusing to treat death as 'a concurance' or a 'lapse of memory.' The kept spelling 'concurance' and the handwritten insert 'No gloss' both reject smoothing-over; the bare final rhyme 'No gloss / Now this is loss' lands the poem on grief with no varnish.