Page 152

By Jack Joseph Smith

Her Loss of Touch From kingdoms, and places at the squalid end Across what used to be known, about the land and about the sea; it was her entire hand, not her finger, that she waved across the universe, and you couldn't bank on it,. cause when she started,. they didn't have any Still she makes and corrects the wild, but way back then she ran the wind as well She wished on both tongues, even when truth cared, and told a rhyme of life, when the face of madness was not faceless In the black of night, sex looked like the star of David,. and bad dreams came awake to the love she tossed as a sword to the sky

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Her Loss of Touch" enlarges a woman into a mythic force who once governed wind, truth, and love, even as madness and night gather around her.

The title suggests diminishment, but the poem spends most of its energy remembering amplitude. Her hand moves across the universe, she speaks in both tongues, and love becomes something she can fling upward like a weapon. The page treats touch not as softness but as world-shaping power that has become harder to hold.

Claude

'Her Loss of Touch' has a title of diminishment but spends its energy remembering amplitude: the woman waves not a finger but 'her entire hand' across 'the universe,' so early that 'when she started,. they didn't have any' to bank on. She 'ran the wind,' 'wished on both tongues,' and 'told a rhyme of life, / when the face of madness was not faceless,' until the night-vision turn - 'sex looked like / the star of David,. and bad dreams came / awake to the love she tossed as a sword / to the sky' - makes touch world-shaping power rather than softness, power now harder to hold.