Page 197

By Jack Joseph Smith

Sum Perhaps we are scared the old man will die first: Nott impossible with the slaughteer you see is having it Anyone who has ever asked for pieces to be put back together, has gone to the moon, as their perfect daughter We say there is a wrong and a right. We also say there is a right and a wrong The moon talks,, thank our gods The sun just says,, we will meet

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem mixes old age, slaughteer, daughters, the moon, right and wrong, and a quiet promise of meeting, making moral order feel haunted rather than settled.

What stands out is the contrast between the moon's speech and the sun's sparse answer. The scan-verified title Sum makes the page feel like an attempted reckoning rather than only a solar image.

Claude

Sun. Perhaps we are scared the old man will die first. Anyone who has asked for pieces to be put back together has gone to the moon as their perfect daughter. We say wrong and right; we also say right and wrong. The moon talks, thank our gods. The sun just says we will meet.