By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
A war-returned presence appears in a double take like gold beyond belief, crushing ordinary dreams and standing in front of the speaker with permanent, unbookish force.
The voice keeps circling between the person seen and the life already lived through war, travel, and disillusion. Great French books are dismissed not because they are worthless, but because a real presence has more authority than literature at that moment. What remains is shock that does not fade, a figure who stays in front of the mind long after the glance.
'Gold Sight': there she was, a double take; been to war and back and somehow still doing it. Beyond belief, crushed, crossing the world is not unusual except for her — not notice like great French books but a presence standing in front of you that would never go away.