Page 35

By Jack Joseph Smith

Learn and poise Across is the place above the top Quit is under and always looking up Never get hurt Whip the up and top Be a child Yes get hurt m I cn't find Wild as hell Opening me up Alone in America Even places in war can't tell

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem moves through commands about learning, hurt, childhood, wildness, America, and war.

Its imperative grammar makes vulnerability feel like instruction: never get hurt, then yes get hurt. The odd central line, I cn't find, leaves the page suspended between survival advice and disorientation.

Claude

A string of imperatives swings between caution and surrender - 'Never get hurt' then 'Yes get hurt' - while 'Be a child' sits beside being 'Wild as hell' and 'Alone in America.' The stray 'm' and the broken 'I cn't find' leave the poem unsettled, war among the places that 'can't tell.'