Page 240

By Jack Joseph Smith

aoe ectric nights. She never appeared. to tire of her vision, and outside viewpoints about her single state began ° to be brought in messages by her youthful court. - “TY heard a handsome ragged hippie man say it was sure to happens He said he had painted it already . 7 and it had brought him out of his abstraction." Yet another of the very young ladies did say, "I . hear bad things; but you must not worry. Those voices sound éturved for something, like paranoid . cat tails swishing in dark hallwayss" As the days had passed the crowded beach felt . the air of need to give her leave, Around her re- mained a circle of space; while remarks found conn= ection only with her entourage, The sumer days were-hot, but in the evenings came the wind, and on = ; the second night Maria had been chilled to accepting a light quilt. The young girl wrapped the quilt around Maria's shoulder's with pleasure-saying, "it . is from my mother old Maria, and she will be glad 2 you have warmed yourself with it, because she has : said that you are her blood," ; Into the third day a buldge:-of bad behavioural interest had back built from the crowd, yet, "budd- ing sure as coming bloom the flower of her face,"

Original Scan

Page 240

AI Interpretation

GPT

The growing crowd around Maria reveals how quickly spiritual attention attracts both care and cruelty, with the city's need for spectacle pressing against the possibility of genuine devotion.

What keeps the scene alive is the unstable mix of entourage, mockery, offerings, and weather. Maria's stillness does not cancel the crowd's appetite; it reorganizes it.


Claude

The growing crowd around Maria reveals how quickly spiritual attention attracts both care and cruelty. The page is ambivalence made architectural.