Page 17

By Jack Joseph Smith

I try like a child, I flutter my wings as fast as a sparrow, I lose myself . in blue sils And watch the sunset The same place it rises We have doors for thildren swift as our silence is Theaves look and wonder at their deeds Sure as Shakespeare, enjoyableable people try there hand at laughter ‘ We are not strange with a gutar and forty four You imarine we don't know the diffetance between mice and men ie A when we want to blow stuff up ie ou’ b ‘i This blind joy lets us not set caught LL Maybe migic never runs out, yy oe BCY f/ and each may bless ano'hers tears Ae

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The page imagines the speaker as a child or sparrow, fluttering toward sunset in a lyric of vulnerability and ascent.

The bird imagery softens the collection's harsher edges without removing them. The poem's beauty comes from the feeling of trying to rise while already aware of loss and self-erasure.

Claude

A child-like-a-sparrow page, doors for 'thildren,' 'Theaves' looking and wondering at their deeds, Shakespeare invoked, magic maybe never running out — heavy marginal scribbling in the scan corners.