Page 111
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The poem rejects grades, guns, and pious symbols in favor of a hard lesson about youth, violence, and the startling moment when old bodies strike back against the young.
Jesus is stripped of floral or arboreal softness and turned into a harsh fact for thought rather than decoration. The middle lines connect youthfulness, death, and admiration in an uneasy way, as if sacrifice is being sold as a model for the living. Its rough ending leaves the warning unresolved, which suits a poem built from interrupted recognition rather than finished doctrine.
No one better than they self is better than a grade or a gun. Jesus went to be dead quick so you could look up to somebody that is young. Old can kick the young's ass.