Page 161

By Jack Joseph Smith

wo No choice; Protectors of the uninnocient, when it is wes Lots of confussion was coming down through many ripped sould lost somewhere, somewheres: My head cleared finally for a second, when J heard that the bail was: gets I looked at’ O'Dandy, and said, : Get. us out tonight Dandy. The old Dandy will be back with the cash ina flashi! Let's lock them upscame a familiar voice droning from a head that tilted with the bending of a familiar Imees: News Z want them out of heres! There buddy will be back with the bails.t've seen him befores .He will be baci. , Within two hours, Dendy was backs He he; got the bail,. he hes’ Here's your slip for the date of hearing, We're not going to press charges, We just want you and you're bynch of animals: out of herej: When the hearing comes, it's up to the Notre Dame boys You better hope that he dosen't have a concussions. is-we stepped outside the police station, Murphy Looked at me and said with a smiley! I hope and prays inthe name of the Fathers the Sony and the Holy Ghosts! Where is your sense of shame Murphy, 1 said? It's sliced up and stored beneath my penis, Where else would a man with any sense of honner keep his sould! Your one of the snakes that was cast out of Trelands I'm one of the snakes, that can swims. Your alive Murphy? It alives

Original Scan

Page 161

AI Interpretation

GPT

The talk swings from whether society is the hereafter to whether death can include awareness, with O'Dandy denying it, Michael pushing the question, and Murphy turning death into a hovering bird over cement.

The bar-fight world starts trying to think metaphysically here, but it can only do it in the same crude idiom of pain, silence, and mockery. Murphy's bird image stands out because it suddenly gives the discussion a real poetic stillness.


Claude

Outside the police station the three compose a Catholic ritual out of their release — Murphy saying in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost — and the argument pivots to whether society is the hereafter and whether one can be dead and still aware.