Soul Child Christmas Time

By Jack Joseph Smith

A Late Sixties Santa Monica Across the Valley the Santa Ana wind sweep cleared the smog and it<seemed to rain for forty days and forty nishts California Soothsayers crouched in corners telling future's falling wisdom The modern day city king came back from Japan with stories- and the merchants put him on television with a gold suit Soul child walks -head low waiting for the storm to blow If there is hot coffie or tea one teble set-for a shopper's return You ean be sure to learn there is none for soul child who sees Yet there in the market place Mall the dream child dreams not through the marble facade While out there among the crowd” the shag of soul child siezes sight upon the charade - All that moves and equals is known by the soul child Prom breaking dawn until breaking dawn for he takes-milk frou your doorstep As the uptown dressed man stepped tovard the bus for home he was approached ‘by a soul child His Pace as a father gave to her ungladly . for her appearance answered his domestic questions Now they step across the threshold passing shadows to shelter they go 3low The evening sea fog feeling slips in through their minds and sparse security finally is ine touch of cupped hands. There a cracked brown building ia din resting at least relinquished froz ‘ne vind : ; In here where leather hung-strung beads make music bleed end not an cbjective stranger makes witness by this deed Are the needed souls of Soul Child Por the ni

Original Scan

Page 62

AI Interpretation

GPT

A late-1960s Santa Monica scene in which the Santa Ana winds clear the smog to reveal a soul child wandering through the Christmas marketplace, ultimately finding sparse shelter with a reluctant father figure in a cracked brown building where leather beads make music bleed.


Claude

Set in 'A Late Sixties Santa Monica' where 'the Santa Ana wind sweep cleared the smog' and 'it seemed to rain for forty days and forty nights,' the poem follows a 'soul child' who 'walks head low / waiting for the storm to blow' while 'the modern day city king came back from Japan' in 'a gold suit' on television. The soul child is the one who sees through the 'marble facade' and 'the charade' of the marketplace Mall: 'All that moves and equals / is known by the soul child.' The turn comes when 'the uptown dressed man' is 'approached by a soul child' and gives 'as a father' but 'ungladly,' her appearance answering 'his domestic questions' - reluctance, not refusal, enough to carry them across a threshold into 'a cracked brown building' where 'leather hung-strung beads make music bleed' and 'not an objective stranger makes witness by this deed.'