Page 452

By Jack Joseph Smith

My forearm is a club, not for war, I was born thar way Go ahead make your decisions concerning my fate,, you thing I don't need an excuse,, you really beleave the first rabbitt I killed isn't better thar you We don't car about the field and having our chances Locked in; that's fear The quiet life, you think the warror knows not how to go blind It is that is so much less when you are done With all people, even those who have never left, stopping turns into a dream

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page speaks in the voice of a born fighter who rejects war while resisting the fear and passivity of the so-called quiet life.

The body is described as weapon-like, but the poem does not glorify organized violence. The handwritten 'go blind' sharpens the quiet-life passage, making the aftermath of conflict feel like refusal, exhaustion, and diminished sight.

Claude

Spoken in the voice of a born fighter who refuses organized war: 'My forearm is a club, not for / war, I was born thar way' (the source's 'thar' kept). He dares the listener to 'make your decisions / concerning my fate' and measures himself against a first kill - 'the first rabbitt / I killed isn't better thar you'. The page rejects the safe 'quiet life' as fear and, via the handwritten substitution, claims even the warrior knows 'how / to go blind'; it closes where struggle empties out - 'even those / who have never left, stopping / turns into a dream.'