Page 306

By Jack Joseph Smith

The Last Instruction At home, or on the run, Eat your meat, chicken and beans,. there till you smell death. you will HAVE RICE in your good life, between tongue and soul;, when your close to what is in the FRIDGE or BUCKET going bad, your going bad too,. And a rifle and a knife are a pleasure to look at,, make sure you haven't seen noth'in yet When you hands are shaking in your pockets,. And you know it is not from the cold, and under the sun not from a lack of fruit And then a beer and a car are really pretty, and a glass of whiskey too; other don't forget to tell the kids, to watch out for you

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The Last Instruction links food, rot, weapons, liquor, cars, and shaking hands into a lesson about how beauty and danger ripen together.

Meat, chicken, and beans are not just nourishment here; they become a clock that runs until death can be smelled inside ordinary living. The rifle and knife are called pleasures to look at, which makes attraction itself part of the warning. By the time beer, whiskey, and a car appear as pretty objects, the speaker knows fear is already in the pockets, and children must be told to watch out for the adult instead of the other way around.

Claude

The Last Instruction delivers a survivalist catalog of appetite and vigilance, moving from meat, chicken, and beans eaten till you smell death to a warning that when food in the FRIDGE or BUCKET is going bad, the person keeping it is going bad too. Weapons and pleasure sit side by side, while shaking hands in pockets signal fear rather than cold. The poem closes on beer, a car, and whiskey before directing the children to watch out for you, turning the catalog into inherited warning.