Page 265

By Jack Joseph Smith

Inside deaster is not the place you are supposed to look for life T'was forty eight and had been walking across the trees for a long time,. and skirted ‘the sea’s as well from way back ; and these characters were difinately different And the good thing about hanging with wild men is that being inside yourself is out of the question, the bad part of course is jail Just a little bit longer; won’t you stay, best line of any tune T havee ever heard Rushing into thongs is always hard,, but it is the onty way not to have to think about it

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

At forty-eight, the speaker enters disaster among wild men, where jail shadows fellowship and rushing ahead becomes the only way to avoid thinking.

Looking for life inside disaster is named as a mistake, yet the poem goes there anyway because the company of wild men breaks the trap of self-consciousness. Their appeal is real precisely because they force the speaker out of his own head. Jail is the cost attached to that freedom, and the quoted song line turns reckless delay into seduction.

Claude

Prose reflection: at 48 'inside deaster' is not where you look for life; hanging with wild men keeps you from being inside yourself, but the bad part is jail. 'Just a little bit longer; won't you stay' named as the best line of any tune; rushing in as the only way not to think.