Page 267

By Jack Joseph Smith

fhe Mess If I was to make love to a seulpture I’ doubt that male or female would have a differanee; it is when not a@ soul walked by me, eause I had no soul to walk by anything,, just beeause I erossedthe pridge and them turned around and eame baek, dosen"*t mean that TI did rot like the plaee,, and I didn‘t even try mot to make a mistake, and remember thinking about it before it was all over eause there is the best intelliganee your gonna get And what have I done; is it anything like a dream? Seeing anybody on the bulivard should ve love; yet if I were yoyng, no matter how hard it is, I still would not join

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The Mess links sculpture, bridges, mistakes, boulevard love, and soul-loss in a confession that distrusts belonging even while imagining intelligence as dreamlike aftermath.

Making love to a sculpture strips desire of gender and warmth, leaving contact with form itself. The crossed bridge and immediate return suggest indecision, but the speaker insists that leaving and coming back do not cancel attachment. "There is the best intelligence your gonna get" sounds grimly earned, as if error and aftermath teach more than any clean conviction. Even so, the refusal to join remains firm.

Claude

'The Mess': making love to a sculpture, male or female would make no difference; crossing the bridge and coming back does not mean he disliked the place. The closing refusal: 'if I were yoyng, no matter how / hard it is, I still would not join.'