Page 145
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker tries not to speak, notices a child falling, denies and then admits something, and turns toward changing hurt, secrecy, and the quiet breed.
The body does not simply illustrate its provocative title. The shifting admissions and pronouns leave responsibility unsettled rather than narrating a confirmed incident.
Under the blunt heading 'Tits', the speaker tracks speech withheld and reversed: 'I tried not to say a word', 'when I said I did not', then 'I looked back / and told them I did', while 'somewhere a child fell / While I was thinking'.
The poem is about a compulsion that hides itself: 'You can't catch it, / but when your bad, / you will try like hell to touch it', yet 'You will never let it be looked at'. The shifting admissions leave responsibility unsettled rather than reporting a confirmed incident.