Page 87
By Jack Joseph Smith
Slap
To be taken for such a fool
The second time I looked at it
I let all of it go by
Behind my back
Stupid without pay
I knew was the way I was looked at
Happy as a clam
It has not changed a bit
Even on the third time
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
GPT
Slap turns humiliation into repetition, describing how foolishness, exposure, and self-knowledge persist across repeated viewings.
The poem is plainspoken, but that helps it. It treats shame less as a single blow than as something recognized again and again, with the calm phrase 'happy as a clam' cutting strangely against the page's hurt.
Claude
Humiliation counted out in installments: 'The second time I looked at it' the speaker 'let all of it go by / Behind my back', accepting being 'Stupid without pay'. The bitter calm of 'Happy as a clam' undercuts the wound, and the flat last line - 'Even on the third time' - confirms that the slap of the title repeats and nothing 'has changed a bit'.