The Good Bunch

By Jack Joseph Smith

Five warriors; a Mom and a Daughter, and a Son with a sailor guy's name They are back up, for the other Son, a fine fellow athletic And the father, a military intellectual, turned by choice and circumstance into a street fighter These two warrior's are absolute For the Son faces the height of medical structure While the father has just finished, with the most historical of classical combat Let us join with the mythical god's of courage and our Lord of course in bringing success and peace to this family
Already known from Waimea Falls to the Tigris Euphrates, as the good bunch

Original Scan

Page 21
Page 22

AI Interpretation

GPT

A blessing poem for a family under pressure, speaking in the register of courage, illness, history, and chosen loyalty.

Its warmth stands out in the collection. Even with the roughness of the voice, the poem is fundamentally communal and protective.


Claude

Five warriors — a family named and counted — receive the poem's protection. The blessing format (Mom, Daughter, Son, sailor-named Son) gives each figure a role in a small army, and the poem's warmth comes from treating family loyalty as a martial virtue, something that requires courage as much as love.

The naming is the poem's most generous gesture. By calling them warriors rather than victims or survivors, the poem insists on their agency even in illness and pressure.