Page 13

By Jack Joseph Smith

Wounds A Cyoti in the eye,, a hawk in the sky; No parts of God, no acknowledgement of the hearafter When I left the winter and wanted spring Why was I unable to settle im This corse across the land treaded by The slightest in the nitch did better than I I think I thought that thought was the vision I had Courageous and weak acts There is no middle ground with wounds

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Coyotes, hawks, winter, and spring become emblems of hurt so deep it abolishes both middle ground and easy theology.

The page moves from animal signs and rejected theology into an account of unsettledness. Its final claim that there is no middle ground with wounds makes pain a condition that cannot be moderated or negotiated away.

Claude

'Wounds' opens on animal omens - 'A Cyoti in the eye,, a hawk in the sky' - paired immediately with a refusal of consolation: 'No parts of God, no acknowledgement / of the hearafter.' The speaker confesses an inability to settle as he 'left the winter and wanted spring,' admitting that 'The slightest in the nitch / did better than I' on 'This corse across the land.' Thought collapses into itself - 'I think I thought that thought / was the vision I had' - before the blunt verdict that with 'Courageous and weak acts / There is no middle ground / with wounds.' Pain here cannot be moderated or theologized away. Source spellings 'Cyoti,' 'hearafter,' 'im,' 'corse,' and 'nitch' are preserved.