By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
"The Hand Of The Gun:" treats perfection, death, weather, the cross, ringing, song, and writing home as elements of a dream that has been left behind.
The scan-checked version restores the page's declarative rhythm. The title frames the poem with threat, while the body circles around need, religious reference, and the repetitive 'it is it it it' as if the object of the poem resists clearer naming.
A fuller draft of 'The Hand Of The Gun:' (note the colon kept in the title), expanding the spare neighbors into complete clauses. 'All is perfection,' 'Need is the subject,' and the wry 'So all is as well as the weather' now precede a self-aware aside - 'This of course is not to mention / our mention of our particular cross.' The poem still hinges on the ring 'Which is not a bell,' the singing and 'writing home,' and 'We are left a dream,' then runs the 'it is it it it' stutter into 'Void as it seems' before closing on 'I am the best / I have ever been.' Here the boast is spelled out in full rather than contracted.