By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
On both sides / Talking to terror argues that guns are not the soul, treating weapons as disposable tools rather than sacred or aesthetic objects.
The scan-backed reading turns the opening from gums to guns, making the page's argument much more direct: weapons do not define the inner life. The speaker's advice is practical and unsentimental, leaving the guns behind if escape requires it because they can be found again down the road. The handwritten line Something unusual is all around keeps the page unsettled, but the closing claim stays plain: violence is not the soul.
Picking up 'On both sides / Talking to terror', the page argues that weapons are disposable: 'Your guns are not, / your soul', so if escape is needed 'we can crawl out of there: / and leave the guns behind'. The handwritten 'Something unusual is all around;' keeps the scene unsettled, but the logic stays plain and unsentimental -- 'We can get them again; / right down the road' -- and lands on the page's thesis, 'This is why violence / is not the soul'.