Page 53
By Jack Joseph Smith
Crash
I did not say a thing
Later I gave it a thou,ht
About saying something
The child did not get
What it was thinking
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The poem frames silence and delayed thought through a child who cannot grasp what it was thinking.
The page turns an unsaid thing into a later act of reflection. Its misshapen thou,ht keeps the thinking visibly damaged or interrupted, which fits the child's failure to get what it was thinking.
Titled 'Crash,' the poem moves from withheld speech - 'I did not say a thing' - to a belated thought 'About saying something,' then drops to the child who 'did not get / What it was thinking.' Comprehension always arrives one beat too late.