Untitled ("I only got two kids")

By Jack Joseph Smith

I only got two kids most have more They are three and one He was not here for either Girl and guy just like me and him You can go guess they are going to be very smart Cause I get to work while they fuss and my aint reads to them I pronounce it right walking through the holler I was picking rubarb which I love just about as much as him

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

A maternal poem about labor, absence, speech, and local pride, ending in a plainspoken measure of love.

Claude

The collection's closing poem opens with a count: two kids. That number is both modest and absolute. The plainspoken love that follows is all the more powerful for refusing to elevate itself above ordinary speech.

After forty-eight poems of poverty, violence, and endurance, two kids and a measure of love is what remains.