Page 209

By Jack Joseph Smith

Or was it worship or a better winged bird Or to take the family under would make adore,, killing at will the first thought before wine, while the timing of things is as useless as the rock you wateh roll Reason and the knife the same with such silenee,, bonds of men through the reagons of the earth, your side take me says Christ Let me leave the last of the overhanging stars, for for you after that there are mone left; eternal is diffieult, and thus it's enteranee and when there not coming after ya, and you take their head off anyway, your luek has ran outs look at Shakespeare, Hamlet, Lear, Othello, all alive in the play when we believaé they are dead

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Worship slips into killing, Christ enters the argument, and Shakespearean death is overturned by the strange persistence of life inside the play.

The poem keeps breaking and revising its own language, especially around "worship" and "adore," as if devotion cannot stay free of violence. "Your side take me says Christ" abruptly inserts scripture into a field already crowded with knives, stars, and severed heads, making the appeal sound desperate rather than serene. Hamlet, Lear, and Othello remain alive because theater suspends finality, which may be the only refuge offered here.

Claude

Closing Shakespeare triptych; reason and the knife set equal in their silence, Christ asks the speaker to take his side, and Hamlet/Lear/Othello persist alive in play even when we believe them dead.