By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
"The Hand Of The Gun" moves from perfection and survival into cross imagery, false ringing, disappearance, void, and a final claim of being at one's best.
The corrected transcript makes the page more coherent without smoothing its strangeness. The title gives the poem a threat-bearing frame, while the body keeps insisting that all is well even as the imagery moves through death, absence, and erasure.
The Hand Of The Gun — first draft. All is perfect, no death on the ridge, need is our subject. Without mention of our cross — then there is a ring which is not a bell. While we were singing, even writing home. Void as it seems — I'm the best I have ever been.