Page 91
By Jack Joseph Smith
Didn't I take her off the edge
when I thought she was gonna die
Being afraid of your eyes being
pecked out don't mean that your
not a bird too
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
GPT
A rescue from the edge becomes a terse lesson that fear of mutilation does not exempt anyone from belonging to the same vulnerable, winged creatureliness.
The poem is tiny, but it cuts quickly from action to identity. Saving her does not produce safety; it only reveals that terror and kinship are bound together. Calling the frightened person a bird too makes fragility feel shared rather than exceptional.
Claude
Didn't I take her off the edge. Being afraid of your eyes being pecked out don't mean that you're not a bird too. Short stoic fragment.