Page 233

By Jack Joseph Smith

lee Poe oP The horror of being more free im Mexico thanvirr the UsSeAc / - /) PPI , “ ? DT amesta Bhows the b BR der 2 u Against that world that takes from you: I have found all across the shell of itt The way the flowers have of’ showing gold. and the lace of old iron: where you came from pene The mineral is red powrest the Lifts So tegt the sea is a color of ehoiee you All (nLAoe Ss — Places where the sand is not solid ts a spolder Ft Lit are the best quick $o-eFrht are they not 17779 Lpoph ter lap HEP le 7 ) J I am able to go there Eninco but I could never leave with youvoma rowpoat

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Mexico appears as a place of troubling freedom, red mineral, gold flowers, and unstable sand, where the speaker can arrive alone but cannot depart with a companion by rowboat.

The shock of being more free in Mexico than in the USA gives the poem its moral charge before it turns to color and texture. Gold flowers, old iron lace, and red mineral make the landscape feel decorative and elemental at once, as if beauty and history are fused there. The final refusal of departure with another person leaves freedom strangely solitary and unshareable.

Claude

The horror of being 'more free in Mexico / than in the U.S.A.'; Eninco at the border. Flowers show gold and old iron lace, minerals are red, the sea a color of choice. The speaker can go there but could never leave with Eninco in a rowboat.