By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Lying in the Holy Ghost's name brings death near, while desert and mountain knowledge reduce wind, sound, water, and oil to harsh elements no one has even thought to ask about.
The opening warning is blunt and almost folkloric, binding speech and consequence together with no buffer. Once the poem turns to desert and mountains, the Holy Ghost becomes a traveler who knows equivalences ordinary people resist, especially the unsettling claim that water and oil are equal. The final note of neglect matters: the force has been present in those places all along, but nobody bothered to ask.
'If ever you lie / then mention the Holy Ghoast / then soon you will die.' Before and beyond wind is as close as you get; it is not a dream but a sound. The Holy Ghost has been in the desert (where water and oil are equal) and in the mountains, though you've never asked.