Page 27
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
This page turns yearning toward a sister figure into a tender, unstable mix of love, memory, and restraint.
The poem keeps acknowledging that the feeling exceeds any simple role. Its emotional power comes from that tension between intimacy and prohibition.
'A Molly Love, My Only Sister' braids sibling love with something more dangerous. The address recalls when 'a whole kitchen wondered why,' her glance 'Sweet and down along the way,' her seriousness gone 'dreary, / all for a hallway of thought.' The speaker confesses 'Loving you in the way of in love was not a plan, / so it was just to high for following,' casting himself as 'a wounded fox from the hunt; / a wild wolf finally under siege' where 'Only falling would let me climb to your embrace.' He insists this is 'Different than sister; no chalking this one off,' and ends gently on 'your eyes of joy...'