Page 6

By Jack Joseph Smith

un Reach your rifle off the rack and wrap its run, through the rear window Remember the great Gibbons, when he said, "I slapped him down after he said he was sorry, when he said it like he didn't mean it" Deal with brokerage where desire is the secret Say one thing at a time, when in particular your prodding and prowling, by the nature of your beast, means you have been selective only once You need to look in the mirror and say, "I won't clean your clock like a con man, I'll clean your clock like I can" Direct and dangerous you are, and dirty is the victums dread Unfinished business and the loss of, sainthood in the family, makes you Shakespear Even with a star on your vest, we do not need to get more out of this While I'm just watching for a muddy field, and a moonlit baseball bat

Original Scan

Page 6

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page turns family violence, masculine threat, and street-law speech into a hard lesson about force.

Gibbons, mirrors, guns, clocks, and baseball bats all belong to the same world. The voice is theatrical, but it is also deeply intimate and dangerous.


Claude

A sister poem with the rifle off the rack and its run through the rear window. The great Gibbons slaps a man down for an insincere apology. Direct and dangerous, a star on the vest, unfinished business and the loss of sainthood in the family making you Shakespeare. Closes on a muddy field and a moonlit baseball bat as the book's emblem of reckoning.