Page 40

By Jack Joseph Smith

Talking To Yourself I don't care who you are Cops have got to big for their own business I don't care who you are Power is the sound of an organ without quiting I don't care who you are I never saw an infant that was not the same I don't care who you are A mother will always tell you not to be turned on I don't care who you are If your dad tought you a trade you don't give it up I don't care who you are Thinking about yourself as a fighter makes you shit I don't care who you are However if one would say My poems are the greatest of all time Then we will care who you are

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page builds a refrain out of defiance, repeating indifference until the closing boast turns the whole piece into a joke about ego and reputation.

The repetition gives the page a chant-like pressure. It keeps insisting that identity does not matter, then breaks its own rule when poetry and self-importance enter the frame, which makes the ending feel knowingly comic.

Claude

The hammered refrain 'I don't care who you are' brackets a string of folk certainties - cops grown 'to big for their own business', power as 'the sound of an organ without quiting', the trade a 'dad tought you' that 'you don't give it up'. The structure is built to be broken: the lone exception, claiming 'My poems are the greatest of all time', is the one boast that makes the speaker 'care who you are', turning the whole catalog into a setup for self-aware vanity.