Page 360

By Jack Joseph Smith

Sight She is the gold I'd seen»in North Navada There she was, a doubble take I was getting old with a fist of fire, and I think I was hidding it pretty well Bad men are nice to me, good women are just terrible And how big is this Earth, when I had never seen-anything like her Fighting is something you don't think about, while leaving is something you leave alone Violence and abruptness, should not be eherished She always wated he kids to be in a better place I always wanted mine to be worse

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Nevada gold, a fist of fire, and the shock of her appearance turn sight into a quarrel between cherished violence, bad men, terrible women, and children.

The "fist of fire" suggests anger or power being concealed under aging, so the double take carries both desire and threat. Bad men being nice and good women being terrible reverses moral shorthand, making human relation feel unstable from the start. The ending is especially sharp because her wish for children to be better is met by the speaker's wish for his to be worse, a confession that turns nurture inside out.

Claude

'Sight' three: getting old with a fist of fire, hiding it; bad men are nice to him, good women are terrible. She wanted her kids in a better place; he wanted his worse. The harsh cross-cut makes the portrait.