By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Our Best Friend turns to Sue through the mother, tying loyalty, self-reproach, and inner selfhood to the claim that space and time need no help.
Sue is introduced through maternal recognition, as if the mother already knows both the speaker's faults and his allegiance. The half-joking admission that it is not hard to be no good gives the tenderness a rough, self-mocking edge. Against that, "space and time" needing no help makes the final appeal to the inner self feel almost impossible, something rarer than anything cosmic.
'Our Best Friend' reaches Sue through the mother, who 'reads it,, / excuse the pun'. The recognition is rough and self-mocking -- 'She understands,, / that it isn't hard,, / for me to be no good' -- balanced by loyalty, that he is 'completely on her side'. The doubled commas pace the lines like careful breaths. It ends on a quiet hierarchy of difficulty: 'Space and time / Needs no help', but 'Hard to come by' is 'Your inner self' -- rarer than anything cosmic.