By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Ancient moves from the horror of a woman's dying and the mirror of her being alive into soul-loss, power, business, modern war, tyrants, and Omar Kiham's sense that each face and place is the same.
The page ties private grief to politics and power. Its preserved misspellings and rough punctuation are part of the manuscript's pressure rather than errors to smooth away.
'Ancient' moves from private grief to public power. It sets 'The horror of her dying' against 'The mirror of her. / being alive,' and concedes that 'Nothing we know settles / the soul,' which is 'Worse when the soul is gone.' From there it turns combative -- 'No man's hands tell me / how to conduct business' -- and indicts a modernity proud 'with their war,' asking 'who has ever / mentioned tyrents caring for / their own.' It closes by invoking 'Omar Kiham,' who 'said, / each face and place / is the same.' Source spellings ('tyrents,' 'Kiham') are kept.