Page 128

By Jack Joseph Smith

“You must understand’ Animal, thet I am not: after a-freedom to-wander, I have-married a:nurss, .who: has ‘a deeply religous: social consciences’ I do not respect the world as ishe-dees, but I 'respeet her for leoking at peeple and things -in Btw She peliieves: that reality is stability, If I may be poetic? A strong flower holding against the wind ig mere-beautiful than one dashed and’ distroyed aleng the highway. She sees peeple whe stand fin im a meaning related’ to her past om the-farm, I” am not! trying to put out! a-point about’ money: fer pesition,; I need money for tocls se that I'may do. work, but not’ werk that bends my mind’ against: my~- self, Iwant work that is-my choles, se thet at Yeast my hand will remain frees* “In the -house-ef Manhatten, which is: the Animal's decent, it’is mas Snow thet the silver spoom i bo te Li s pe 43 \ feeds: the-babe-of the LIAS. etreet rates" —~ ” . zo ry (GH-M| ~A FE Walking om the street this mornings Anti, Tr meet a-mam late for work, He was standing at the Pite, .Lincsols Bulvds bus: stops He asked me-How I was-doing, since-he-knew'I ‘iad left the milT. I~ said fire; which Cy ask if Iwas playing. No, I am not playing, ; told hits, He looked’ at. me-bewildered, and’ I went ow that I was" looking for my own work, Hé- said’ that: he wae tireds The — mill! was tired, Not just that’ the milli made hin tired, but that the mill was: tired too; Hic face .

Original Scan

Page 128

AI Interpretation

GPT

Prankster's memory of leaving his son makes the drugs-and-style banter suddenly tragic, exposing the abandoned domestic life beneath the barroom voice.

The page widens the emotional field without becoming sentimental. Chicago, the motorcycle, the shades, the desert, and the boy all appear as fragments of a life that might have hardened into purpose if addiction had not redirected it.


Claude

Prankster's memory of leaving his son drops into the drugs-and-style banter and suddenly renders it tragic. The page is the manuscript refusing to let his clowning stay only funny.