Page 90
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
This page contrasts sober drift and drunken distortion, then refuses any sentimental obligation to honor everyone who passes through your life.
It feels terse and unsparing. Travel, time, shadow, and intoxication all blur together, but the last lines are the real cut: departure does not automatically deserve praise. The poem chooses discernment over easy generosity.
Five terse lines of road-wisdom: 'Travel and let the days go by', where sobriety is thin ('sober is / a shadow') and the drunk is seen 'as a quick the / slice headed backwards.' The sharp turn is the refusal at the end - 'No one said to praise everyone who / walks by, walks away from you' - choosing hard discernment over sentimental gratitude toward those who leave.