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By Jack Joseph Smith

Ripping The Word I tore it before I saw it in smoke I looked and saw things were decent They had no place in my brain Closely tyrants tearing romance away fo replace animal life with myself With a wire mayge to strung I am Up and dowm any river at the same loss of time,, sound inbetween is alot more fierce than the beginning or the end : fo see life fall from tundra Oh to hobo through the middle fo rest with the worst and the best Watching ships choose there ends | All along ané against ourselves fhe beaches outlaws once dreamed of

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Ripping The Word" tears language open and sends the speaker through tyrants, rivers, tundra, ships, hobos, and outlaw beaches in search of a life not yet stolen by self and power.

The poem begins by damaging speech before fully seeing it, which makes destruction seem built into perception itself. Romance is threatened not by sentimentality but by systems that replace animal life with domination and self-assertion. Its roaming middle passages give the piece a restless, fugitive force, as though truth can only be found while moving among the worst and best alike.

Claude

Ripping The Word: tore it before seeing it in smoke. Up and down any river at the same loss of time, sound between more fierce than beginning or end. Beaches outlaws once dreamed of.