Page 6

By Jack Joseph Smith

A Molly Love, My Only Sister Kissed clear sailor when wandering shell back has gone From your feet you desired me not Until memory suggested the world as swelled, with where we stood when a whole kitchen wondered why Sweet and down along the way was your glance; and then as a dry lawn through gardens, your seriousness went dreary, all for a hallway of thought Loving you in the way of in love was not a plan, so it was just too high for following Yet scared, and no good at it, trying made me happy Yes a wounded fox from the hunt; a wild wolf finally under siege Only falling would let me climb up to your embrace Different than sister; no chalking this off, upright we will be there, at a point where we did did not take off, but stayed, kept with our hands A newness beyond all the fashions of laughter we know We will never languish our places, our steps, our songs, or our dreams of direction And so tiny you have it all my lady For though I have wished for sin, and sorrow Still I've seen your eyes of joy...

Original Scan

Page 6

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page circles a bond that cannot be made simple: the language moves between sisterly devotion, romantic yearning, and a wish for a lasting closeness untouched by ordinary social categories.

The scan-reviewed typed body pushes against safe names for love and keeps insisting on a connection that feels both tender and difficult to explain. The marginal handwriting is preserved as annotation rather than forced into the poem body.

Claude

An elegy-homage to Molly, addressed as only sister. The sailor-wanderer returns and finds the kitchen of childhood swelled with memory; loving her is framed as not-a-plan, too high for following, the failed climb that still holds. Sister is explicitly set aside as an inadequate frame — the tenderness here is larger than kinship.