Page 127

By Jack Joseph Smith

Education Leaches on my arms After ninety days in the guard house Eating bricks off the hashish floor And who cares about Hippies talk'in help on you When you've been, around the Horn time Excerpt from an engineer Taking care of his family Why away from Kazantzakis At inland rivers Fixing things for the Pittsburgh Press Drowning from salt in beer instead of sea With repercussions of ship children learning at the side of Jack London books and pool table

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Education" links confinement, hashish, hippie indifference, engineering work, Kazantzakis, Pittsburgh press labor, and children learning beside Jack London books.

The page makes education harsh and practical rather than institutional. Its curriculum is guard house time, labor, sailors' distances, books, pool tables, and family consequence. The handwritten ending shifts the poem toward children inheriting that rough mixture.

Claude

A fragment titled 'Education' lists leeches after ninety days in a guard house, eating bricks off the hashish floor, dismissing hippie help for those who have been around the Horn, an engineer excerpt taking care of family away from Kazantzakis, and a child learning in London books and pools.

'Education' assembles the collection's hardest lessons - guard house, hashish floor, leeches - against contempt for those who offer help without having been through the experience. 'Around the Horn' as self-description puts the speaker in the company of sailors who have done the hardest route. The closing image of a child learning in London books and pools leaves the collection on the next generation's education - whether it will repeat or escape the same curriculum.