Page 93

By Jack Joseph Smith

mo Delight? I askeds Yess It means I am happy when I watch yous You say things so softlys I really mean thats _ . I looked at her for a moment acrogs the church, and warmed when I thought of me ; sayings ‘ Your eyes would turn with the stars-if you danced for mes But it's alright if you don't. You are so pretty standing theres She is her grace and I see her stand in soft delight of singing praises of the Lord “thy God; She is nimble with her lidded lashes, their texture deepens ny vision; There my mind rests away on the stone steps in the black night with sounds of near spring, marveling at her innocence, 4nd mine, Noy I have never been all the way, Can't you tell? I am really afraid of you, You are so beautiful, Don't you know? Yes, I see in the mirror in the morning, .when everyone is calling for me to i hurry to achool, My mind passed deap beneath my own memory saying, she walked away from herself, Every mornings T love you and want to kiss yous; But you talk to her and watch her walk, Father Leh rgey her, and now he knows you'go to her house with the public school boys She is not bad, like they says And we don't touch or anything, We are just friends, He said her mother was evil, When he said that, what did you think? I thought of leaving the Mass with my friends, : He would have killed yous I knows

Original Scan

Page 93

AI Interpretation

GPT

The church-side longing deepens into whispered talk about delight, innocence, kissing, public-school boys, and Papa Joe's hatred of the girl's mother, making young desire feel both tender and punishable.

The page keeps swinging between prayerful stillness and private speech, which gives the crush a strange sacramental heat. Even the softest lines are shadowed by discipline, because any movement toward her passes under Papa Joe's judgment.


Claude

She asks if he has ever been all the way, he asks who she is when he is not praying, and the Lenten flirtation is held at the level of her veil, his mind resting on the stone steps of her innocence.