A Molly Love, My Only Sister

By Jack Joseph Smith

Kissed clear Sailor when wandering shell back has gone From your feet you desired me not Until memory suggested the world as swelled, with where we stood when a whole kitchen wondered why Sweet and down along the way was your glance; and then as a dry lawn through gardens, your seriousness went dreary, all for a hallway of thought Loving you in the way of in love was not a plan, so it was just to high for following Yet scared, and no good at it, trying made me happy Yes a wounded fox from the hunt; a wild wolf finally under siege Only falling would let me climb to your embrace Different than sister; no chalking this one off, upright we will be there, at a point where we did not take off, but stayed, kept with our hands A newness beyond all the fashions of laughter we know We will never languish our places, our steps, our songs, or our dreams of direction And so tiny you have it all my lady For though I have wished for sin, and sorrow too Still I have seen your eyes of joy...

AI Interpretation

GPT

A love poem that keeps folding kinship, desire, and hesitation into one tense emotional register, refusing to make intimacy simple.

Claude

An address to a woman the speaker loves in a way that fits no single name. It moves from a 'wandering shell back' and a desire not returned ('From your feet you desired me not') toward a vow of staying: 'upright we will be there ... but stayed, kept with our hands.' The title's 'My Only Sister' is the poem's deliberate misfit, since the speaker insists the bond is 'Different than sister; no chalking this one off.'

The ache lives in the gap between not being chosen and choosing anyway. The speaker confesses ineptitude plainly - 'Yet scared, and no good at it, / trying made me happy' - while the animal images ('a wounded fox from the hunt; / a wild wolf finally under siege') keep the desire feral rather than courtly. The paradox 'Only falling would let me climb to your embrace' is the hinge, surrender offered as the only ascent. The close turns from wished-for 'sin, and sorrow' to 'your eyes of joy...', ending on her face rather than his failure, and the trailing dots leave that seeing unfinished.