Page 157

By Jack Joseph Smith

i | | | | . i | | Coward i | ‘ | What is there to know | | Hanging out ina tough | | j neighborhood | when you. are on probatior : | Let me know | | when you come up l | | with something else | that is any differant | Cause that is what | I've got | | | \ | | ‘ | i | ot

Original Scan

Page 157

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Coward" strips toughness down to probation, a hard neighborhood, and the speaker’s refusal to pretend there is any more noble explanation than that.

The poem is short because it has no patience for ornament or excuse. It answers the title by refusing performance: this is what life has given, and the speaker dares anyone to produce a cleaner version of it. That bluntness makes the page feel less like surrender than a challenge.

Claude

Coward reprise of page 64's probation short: hanging out in a tough neighborhood, daring a different answer.