By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
"Gone" turns paper, keys, and an old clicking instrument into a temporary enclosure where the world disappears, until war and the walk to the street return the speaker to public life.
The page is absorbed by small mechanical things, as if attention to keys, paper, and clicking sound can suspend the surrounding world. The battered instrument offers retrieval without understanding, something recovered but not resolved. The closing measure of five minutes to the street breaks the interior spell and puts pressure back on the body.
'Gone' absorbs itself in small mechanical things until the world drops away -- 'The window wind blows the paper / I am looking down / at keys / And the world is not around'. The 'exquisit instrument', 'Battered and old', offers retrieval without resolution, 'Sunnenly retreived' yet 'That you do not know', and the spell holds against 'This war and all' until the body's plain measure breaks it: 'It takes me five minutes / to get to the street'.