By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The poem turns a dropped penny into a test of fate, self-regard, and whether the world still recognizes a person's standing.
Its logic is deliberately strange but controlled. Small neglect becomes metaphysical evidence: if you pass over luck, the idea of luck has you deminished and even the universe may revise its opinion of you. The closing image of "dark skinned Earl Flinn's" keeps the page restless and unstable, ending in a question that sounds suspicious, comic, and vaguely threatened all at once.
A short 'High Wateh' makes a dropped coin a test of fate: 'when you walk across a penny on the pavement, / and don't pick it up,, the idea of luck has / you deminished, and so has the universe's view / of your person.' The second movement turns to vigilance and threat - 'No one on the run has ever crossed the widest / of fields without looking bothe ways' - and ends restless on the recurring question 'who / are these dark skinned Earl Flinn's anyway?'