Page 276
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The Shadow shifts from childhood judgment and heartbroken warriors to the Holy Ghost as a native witness who rejects suffering as automatic pardon.
The newly restored marginal block gives the page a childhood scene of accusation or conditional sight before the typed poem turns to soldiers, warriors, and the Holy Ghost. Calling the Holy Ghost a native son makes the spirit local and socially entangled rather than remote, and the closing logic is severe: suffering is only meaningful after actual wrongdoing, so harm cannot be cleansed by a later performance of pain.
A second 'The Shadow', opening with a marginal childhood scene -- 'When AS A child / I SAID / If hE did / that, THEN / I CAN Sight' -- and a wry aside, 'I hope this / hasn't BEEN / VERBOSE'. The typed body turns to war: 'I have never seen a dead sholdier / but I have know alot of heartbrocken warriors', and 'The Holy Ghost is a native son' who 'has seen everyone / Rapped up inside / Against the will'. The closing logic is severe: 'There are no pardon's / for suffering is for the good / but it selective / is / you have to do something wrong first', and 'anything after that dosen't work'. This reading stays provisional: the page is mixed-band with heavy handwriting.