By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
A continuation of the earlier 'She Turned Her Back,' deepening the rejection into images of fantasy, frozen loveliness, and lifeless hands that strangle what they once caressed.
The sequel strips the original rejection down to its coldest mechanics — the mind is taken out of shape with reality and pitched out to sea. 'Fantasy run me near you / Grasp and turn my heart / Yes Devil dear' invokes desire as something demonic and deliberately summoned, not suffered. The poem's final movement — loveliness asking how long it will be alive while lifeless hands strangle — collapses beauty and violence into a single gesture, where the caress and the killing are performed by the same frozen fingers.