By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
This 'Fashioned' page connects family, fame, time, and two kinds of pain to a remembered image of youthful fearlessness and commitment.
The cleaned ending matters: the speaker does not stop at standing unafraid on a jib, but extends the memory into standing on commitment. The page turns self-watching into a test of what can actually support a life.
A companion draft of 'Fashioned' that keeps the triple 'I care about' opening but sharpens the rest: 'I care about every second / of my life / I watch it the way the crow / fly's', and 'I don't think / Beginning to ending / Thinks for me' - thought displaced by instinct. It distills the earlier page's pain into a cleaner pair: 'Two kinds of pain / The one that is all yours / The other, / the one you take a look at'. The handwritten continuation at the foot offers a credential of fearless youth - 'When I was young / I stood on a jib / And was not afraid' - and then 'I stood on / commitment and / was', the sentence breaking off unfinished so the final boast about commitment is left hanging, its claim never completed.