Page 145

By Jack Joseph Smith

Across The Ally Maybe she is Spanish, Black, not F jh shyt Abe oh pay sure; I'am so fucked up,, she might 2 / / be white I am just peaking, just like a cerlus I did not get old and think it I knew when I was in love= . at twelve years old I am not saying you don*t have to be smart to find her Go steady as you go Stick with one till they tell you no Pick the dream up ; Keep it with you It will never end

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Across The Ally" turns drunken uncertainty about a girl across the alley into advice about carrying first love as a lifelong dream.

The speaker is wrecked and visually unreliable, yet strangely sure about the deeper fact of desire. The poem links twelve-year-old love to an older code of persistence: go steady, stay with one, keep the dream in hand. Its last lines make romance feel less like conquest than a discipline of endurance.

Claude

Across The Ally: maybe Spanish, Black, Asian, might be white. Knew when I was in love at twelve years old. Go steady, stick with one till they tell you no.