Page 37

By Jack Joseph Smith

The Case Of Compliance The level has no hammer to tap To make sound the concrete or refactory No watch across stones for a fisherman's No tap on the brain for a prisioner of war No exucation to do or wait for No river lost to a buddy No soul gone Just grevience unspent Just grammer school as a nip Just a little to late For Roosevelt and radio to die Or not watch Vietnam like Bruce Mortan, The first and the last helicopter nerd From witch these bravest of men, would go in horror from the knife fight ready to ensue between the loss of a father or a son and there is no metaphor or likeness NOW for I am struggling across this floor in blood to get this poem done

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

With Vietnam, fathers and sons, Roosevelt, radio, and blood on the floor, the poem insists that some historical grief cannot be softened by metaphor.

The poem defines compliance through the absence of tools, watches, rivers, and metaphor. Its history of war, helicopters, fathers, sons, and blood on the floor leaves the speaker with direct struggle rather than likeness.

Claude

'The Case Of Compliance' builds by negation - 'No watch across stones for a fisherman's,' 'No tap on the brain for a prisioner of war,' 'No river lost to a buddy,' 'No soul gone' - leaving only 'grevience unspent' and 'grammer school as a nip.' It is 'a little to late / For Roosevelt and radio to die,' and turns to Vietnam watched 'like Bruce Mortan, / The first and the last helicopter nerd,' and to 'the knife fight / ready to ensue / between the loss of / a father or a son.' The poem then collapses figure into fact: 'there is no metaphor / or likeness NOW / for I am struggling / across this floor in blood / to get this poem done.' Grief here refuses to be made figurative. Source spellings 'refactory,' 'prisioner,' 'exucation,' 'grevience,' 'grammer,' and 'From witch' are preserved.