Page 15

By Jack Joseph Smith

the sons are of our lonelyness and thusly crul The hoeror of pestilance revirced is the mistrust of solitude, each in their mistrust of theogony, all then in the curse of peace The trust of lines, or the blood of line The kill of the rabbit as a child, the gun later in the dark, angery in any neighborhood Cross across to make things right Proximity takes courage, which no European has ever had; isn't it interesting, that only distance saves the soul, in the last two lifetimes of course; a watchful eye, sleek and very well cared for, is with a lifetime given individually, a horror; family will be shot, men will go to wards, be happy enemy, America, finally, out of the air we are, will

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This middle section pushes from pestilence and mistrust into distance, courage, and a harsh vision of family and nation.

The poem is trying to think historically and personally at once. Its anger is not abstract; it keeps landing on neighborhoods, kinship, and America.

Claude

The same sequence, spread wider. Sons of our loneliness and cruelty, the horror of pestilence reversed as mistrust of solitude, the trust of lines, the blood of line, the child's rabbit-kill, the gun later in the dark. Proximity takes courage no European has ever had, only distance saves the soul. Family will be shot, men will go to wards. America out of the air.