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By Jack Joseph Smith

Also Ran Against the threshold Lighting would not strick if it rained Her the finest of brown Me old and falling down There is a look among us that jars deep canyons In a moment I let youth lose its differance She was so smooth as to be the same Her skin matched mine Distant as a dream,, so much young Though she could not know How much Cherockee I am Stardust to Sun,, no love lost in the jungle Old has let me say that rough, though it is not my immigation; to the extream is not a good idea

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

'Also Ran' binds brown skin, age, thresholds, canyons, Cherokee ancestry, stardust, jungle, and failed extremity into a meditation on difference that will not stay simple.

The last lines are the key. The poem distrusts every extreme posture it touches, including its own claims about immigration, ancestry, and desire.

Claude

''''Also Rarr' refined: the same Cherokee claim ('How much Cherockee I am'), stardust-to-Sun, 'no love lost in the jungle.' The closer warns against the extreme as a personal immigration policy.'''