Page 116

By Jack Joseph Smith

117 highschool, .where were we Danida? We never een spoke, What were you doings -Reading all the time} Turning kids on to far out books, So what? 0, I don't know, maybe that's the way things become so in your minds I chose the physicals I wanted to feel the fights I wanted to see the pain and the lies directly in front of my eyess Everything is s0 fucking mdaneg I have gone way into the past, and I am still theres My conscience won't let me walk out of it, The classic is my friends’ Jack London almost seems to begin where I ends That how far back I am; Running a spe or booking numbers may be outdated, but it brings the fire and keeps it burning, All the fighting, I lmow where they lead, but fuck ite Power and love is the world; I'm not a part of the world, but { demand its intensity; Look into my eyes Denifls t eu a Ji Sees: and most of the time I am afraid the stem is going to snaps But it is that very feeling that drives me on, The fine line of Hell, I-believe in Hell, and 1 am walking on its flames, Believe me, there is nothing to stop the swell of my soul when it burns, No, it is not true, The look in your faces tly heart does see further, It leaps ahead, That is why I am alive, But it also yearns for nows For the present, and the present is the winding alley, and Martpin Po, my father's right hand man, He carries an: i¢e pick that has taught people more than they could have ever found in a book, The chase is on, and 4 am not quiting, But someday +'11 touch it all in a dream and then 1'11 look back smiling at the alley,. Christ t have talked alot, Well Danifl, what's the next step for my weary soul? Danigls 1 mean that in a funny ways. it looks like all the way into it, I don't Imow Michaels’ There's no direction, We only find ourselves in the place we aay You see the steps yourgon, but it looks like youkywalking down, I don't know how far you have to go, I hope its not toofars It gets acarhy down there, i*ve journied down the stairs too, Yeah, he said with a sigh, The journey of the mind, The'mind that demands inolostee Its a quiet journey,

Original Scan

Page 116

AI Interpretation

GPT

Michael contrasts Dani's bookish high-school life with his own hunger for fights, pain, hellfire, and alley violence before asking what direction remains for his weary soul, and Dani answers with uncertainty about the mind's long descent.

The speech turns almost manifesto-like, with Michael insisting on intensity over safety and treating fear as the thing that keeps him moving. Dani's reply does not rescue him so much as admit that inward journeys also lead downstairs into something dark.

Claude

The page names the split openly — you read, I chose the physical — Martin P. and his ice pick are introduced, and Danial quietly answers that the same caverns twist through the University as through Michael's alleys.