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By Jack Joseph Smith

C A Late Sixties Santa Monica Soul Child Christras Tire Across the Valley the Santa Ana wind sweep cleared the smog i, and it:seened to rain for forty days and forty nichts . California Soothsayers crouched in corners telling future's falling wisdon . [ The modern day city king came back from Japan with stories and the merchants put him on television with a gold suit r Soul child walks head low waiting Por the storm to blow If there is hot coffie or tea on a table set for a shopper's return a You can be sure to learn f" there is none for soul child who sees Yet there in the market place Mall the dream child dreams not through the marble facade i; While out there emong the crowd” the shaz of soul child siezes sight uvon the charade - . i All that moves and equals —— is-known by the soul child From breaking dawn until breaking dayn lr" for he takes milk from your doorstep As the uptown dressed man stepped toward the bus for home he was approached by a soul child r His Pace as a father gave to her unglacly for her appearance ansvered his domestic questions f" Now they step across the threshold [ . . w ~ . _ 4 . passing shadows to shelter they go 31ioW ; The evening sea fog feeling slips in tnrougn their minds f and sparse security finally is in a tousn of cupped hands’ There a cracked brown building is din ; i" reating at least relinguisned from tae wind . In here where leather hung-strung beats make music ono . end ret an chjective stranger maxes witness by tis ceea ws ‘n a ee [ Are the needed souls of Soul Child for the nighiess

Original Scan

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AI Interpretation

GPT

In a fragmentary Christmas-city vision, Soul Child moves through smog-cleared California, consumer spectacle, and makeshift shelter as a figure of need and witness.

Santa Ana wind, rain, television, gold suit, mall marble, bus rides, doorstep milk, and sea fog create a public world of commerce and prophecy where Soul Child remains low-headed and exposed. The poem keeps contrasting shoppers, fathers, merchants, and crowds with someone who sees through the charade yet still depends on scraps of warmth and human touch. Because the transcription is broken in places, the narrative stays jagged, but the central feeling is clear: innocence and deprivation are being carried through a glossy city that barely knows what to do with them.

Claude

Santa Monica 'Soul Child' piece: Santa Ana winds clear the smog, a modern-day city king on television in a gold suit, a child sees past the marble of the mall.

The poem installs the child as the only reliable eye in a city where the market's interior has become the substitute landscape. 'Breaks dawn until breaking dayn' is the line that holds the doubled time — the child watches the day and the day's decay together. The poem's critical strength is refusing to make the soul-child symbolic; they take milk from doorsteps.