Untitled ("Let me tell you about us swimming the strem")

By Jack Joseph Smith

Let me tell you about us swimming the strem Fast and slow ones alone way before getting dressed up for church Don't think fear touched us with our hand on the bible After all was said and done We we're Sala mander's from day one I am you and certain that the one I love is going to be murdered Already I can tell in the eye that there are most likely one in millions born without fear Shop keepers, mule skinners, you never know You are born with heven; you are born with hell

Original Scan

Page 45

AI Interpretation

GPT

A memory poem of church, fearlessness, and inherited violence, ending in a divided birth between heaven and hell.

Claude

The invitation 'let me tell you' opens a story that moves from swimming to church to fearlessness to a birth divided between heaven and hell. The stream is both literal water and the current of memory.

The misspelling 'strem' compresses the word, removing its gentle middle vowel and making it sound more like 'strain.'