Page 114
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Andrea is drawn through pale, overstudied eyes, messy blondness, intelligence, and physical self-possession until her presence becomes a charged zone where trouble is kept at bay.
The page admires Andrea with unusual precision, lingering on gesture, posture, and the way understanding registers in her body. Intelligence is treated as her truest level, more stabilizing than beauty or goodness. The final phrase beast friend keeps the portrait slightly unsettled, making her closeness to the sister feel protective, unruly, and vivid rather than merely polite.
'Andrea' is a precise, admiring portrait built from gesture: 'I think the eyelashes think, / and I think the eyes are pale / From looking too much', a blond that 'is always a mess' but a woman who 'is tough; she makes up her mind.' The speaker reads her body for character - 'her / waist is tight', 'she shakes hands, / as a good girl', and 'she cocks / her head back, when she understands' - and treats 'intelligence' as 'the only way', so that 'there will be no triuble / while around Andrea', closing on the unsettled phrase 'her sister's / beast friend.'