By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
A short subterranean poem where danger travels by rumor, scent, and shadow rather than by any visible attacker.
The underground setting matters because it makes the page feel enclosed and alert. Girl scout sticks, holes, danger, and the shadow the other way all suggest a world where warning is more important than explanation.
A short underground poem where threat travels by rumor and scent rather than sight. Birds 'get a kick out of telling / the underground about danger'; there are 'Two holes at thirty feet' and the speaker has 'worn a sented / skirt'. The closing image is spatial and watchful - 'girl scout sticks are / laid at the fire frighting / end' while 'there is still a / shadow the other way / through the hole'. Survival here is geometry: where the danger is, and which way the dark escapes.