By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
America is mapped as wild west, killing east, warlike south, and quietly dangerous north, ending with a grim collective return toward the Indian wars.
The poem distrusts every regional myth it names, since guns, knives, and bad reasons appear everywhere. Saying war belongs in the south while the north reserves danger in quieter form suggests that violence changes style more than substance. The closing handwritten WAY makes national history feel like a return route, with folks on their way back toward old atrocities.
'America' maps the country as a grid of violence: 'Welcome to the wild west / Watch out in the killing east,' where 'Every time I saw a gun / All the time a knife / usually was first' and 'The reason was not / good enough.' The 'south, further you get / Is kind of like where war / belongs,' while 'way up north, / the danger gets reserved and quiet,' and everything else is 'inbetween and unforseen.' The handwritten 'WAY' sharpens the grim close - 'Folks; we are on our WAY back / To the Indian wars' - reading national history as a return route to old atrocity.