By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
"Explanition" lashes out in disgust and exhaustion, turning any claim to explanation into a bitter joke about ugliness, injury, and the absurd demand to end violence.
The poem's force comes from its refusal to clean up its own anger, and the visible handwritten edits make that refusal feel active on the page. It sounds like someone cornered by contempt, making broad ugly judgments while also admitting he is beaten down. The last line is viciously ironic, because the speaker is the least plausible peace-maker in the room and knows it.
'Explanition' refuses to tidy its own contempt: heavily revised opening lines watch 'Every Mistip / Trying to sneek into / line', insisting there is 'no / such thing'. The voice spits broad disgust -- 'they just don't / have pointed noses,. they / are just down right dumb / looking,. all of them... the whole bunch is ugly' -- while admitting 'I am beat to shit', and lands on a viciously ironic kicker: 'Have me go tell them / how to stop violence', naming himself the least plausible peacemaker alive.