Page 136

By Jack Joseph Smith

Before The Top [here before thECire’ 5 I was sitting in Seattle With Gibbons In this grandstand He had taken me to At about six in the morning After drinking a whole lot from the docks to Queen: Ann Hill;, a misty nineteen sixty a Eda Ez two experience,. alone meaning ¢ I 5 Ww A r gq 0OodEp ro one else there . git Up in the first shine He was fixing the highwire He was underneath it Tightening the clamps Two hands around the wind and the wind of the cord

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This second "Before The Top" page narrows the Seattle memory into a vivid study of Gibbons under the high wire, working at dawn with the wind in his hands.

What was scenic on the previous page becomes tactile here: clamps, cord, shine, and the precise labor of preparing danger. Gibbons is no longer just companion or witness; he is the figure literally beneath the spectacle, making it possible. The page honors craft under pressure, the hidden work that steadies what others will later marvel at.

Claude

Before The Top take two: Gibbons underneath the highwire in first shine, tightening the clamps with two hands around the wind and the wind of the cord.