Page 14

By Jack Joseph Smith

/ We have been talking about this for years now The music and the racial, come on, say the women, don't get tired, keep it up between ya, while leaving love out of it; to begin with, and I‘11 take that gun, unless you are going to the bank We need a kid to play the twelve string Ornery as family a delicate conclusion We know bowinkle, we know an elm tree, and a hero in the rain across Narrow as a knife across a sound,fer a catch This hog up and done suggests children without deception i Don't be sorry that light and dark is wunundated Somewhere we are rolling down the pen, for electric cattle to stray Being one in the same . Getting old and skinning cats

Original Scan

Page 14

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page sounds conversational and crowded, mixing race, women, music, and exhaustion into a loose collective scene.

The strongest thing here is the talking voice. Rather than resolving its tensions, the poem lets music, desire, and social friction sit together in the same live argument.

Claude

A saloon-band argument about 'the music and the racial,' a kid on twelve-string, bowinkle and elm trees as the known world, closing on getting old and skinning cats.