Page 28

By Jack Joseph Smith

The self before My Eyes, his fountain folded, the sun lit glisten was gone, the Electric bENEATH stopped, the fire of the unknown Left, he came down to A cocky swink, I'd never Love An image again, I now Knew the eternal differance the Long Line of respect will make or brake in the heart of things, that are only mortal.

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker watches the self before his eyes collapse, its sun-lit glisten extinguished, and turns that moment into a reflection on respect, illusion, and mortality.

The restored images of the fountain folding and the sun-lit glisten deepen the sense of something idealized losing force, while the `fire of the unknown` makes the collapse more charged than merely physical. The speaker responds with a harder understanding of `differance` and the fragile ethics that govern things that are `only mortal.`

Claude

A collapse of the idealized self: 'The self before My Eyes, / his fountain folded, / the sun lit glisten / was gone, the Electric / bENEATH stopped, the / fire of the unknown / Left,' the figure reduced to 'A cocky swink.' From this the speaker swears 'I'd never / Love An image again,' having learned 'the eternal differance' that 'the Long Line of respect / will make or brake in the / heart of things, that are / only mortal.' Spellings 'differance' and 'brake' are preserved as written. It marks a turn away from the book's mirror-worship.