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By Jack Joseph Smith

Near is supposed to mean that something important is happening I am annactor I love all that is before me And I have no respect for myself I give it all up Tomorrow is impossible Be someone else every day You thought what you said had a flowwr in mind something that grew, maybe creating like the past to stop rhe helll not a chance — yy 0 A j AN A bY» Not I’ did not see the end when I saw the first thing

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Nearness, acting, self-contempt, impossible tomorrow, and a flowered hope that cannot stop hell make the first sight matter more than any promised ending.

The speaker treats identity as costume, giving himself away while admitting he has no respect for the self doing the performance. The flower image briefly offers growth or beauty as an answer to hell, but the poem cuts that hope off almost immediately. What remains is a stark reversal: the first thing seen carries more truth than whatever end might later explain it.

Claude

'Near' two: supposed to mean something important is happening. 'I am an actor / I love all that is before me / And I have no respect for myself.' Tomorrow impossible, be someone else every day; attempt to create the past to stop the hell fails — 'I did not see the end when I saw the first thing.'