Page 305
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Later reflection turns gift against giver, keeps three loves and war in the same silence, and admits that no useful thought came on the mountain.
The poem looks backward from afterlife talk toward the moment when good times had to be suspended and difficulty finally faced. A gift that turns on its receiver makes blessing feel unstable, almost predatory. "Three loves" and "the way of war" stand beside each other without reconciliation, and the mountain top offers no revelation, only blankness.
'I didn't think of it until later on': things to talk about when we are gone — sorrow, sin, loss of us; a gift that turns on you; three loves you won't let go; the way of war that won't let you alone. 'It is all silence.'