Page 6

By Jack Joseph Smith

A Molly Love, My Only Sister Kissed clear sailor when wandering shell back has gone From your feet you desired me not Until memory suggested the world as swelled, with where we stood when a whole kitchen wondered why Sweet and down along the way was your glance; and then as a dry lawn through gardens, your seriousness went dreary, all for a hallway of thought Loving you in the way of in love was not a plan, so it was just too high for following Yet scared, and no good at it, trying made me happy Yes a wounded fox from the hunt; a wild wolf finally under siege Only falling would let me climb to your embrace Different than sister; no chalking this off, upright we will be there, at a point where we did not take off, but stayed, kept with our hands A newness beyond all the fashions of laughter we know We will never languish our places, our steps, our songs, or our dreams of direction And so tiny you have it all my lady For though I have wished for sin, and sorrow Still I've seen your eyes of joy... I would NEVEr LAy my hANd Nor hEAd ThErE All ALoNg, ThAt would bE just As wEll, ANd would Not hAvE thE AbsENcE of good. Too. JAcK

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker addresses a woman through memories of attraction, fear, wounded animals and an imagined shared future. A handwritten marginal passage says the speaker would never lay a hand or head there and refers to the absence of good.

The speaker considers love and an embrace while using sister as a term of relation. The manuscript does not establish a literal sibling relationship. The restored marginal passage introduces another qualification, but its attachment to the main poem remains uncertain.

Claude

'A Molly Love, My Only Sister' addresses a woman through images such as 'a wounded fox from the hunt; / a wild wolf finally under siege' and 'Only falling would let me climb to your embrace'; the typed poem closes 'Still I've seen your eyes of joy...'. A detached handwritten block reads 'I would NEVEr / LAy my hANd Nor hEAd / ThErE All ALoNg,', and the page ends 'Too. / JAcK'.

The typed poem moves through longing and restraint, and the margin block insists on a boundary. The handwritten passage has no clear insertion point, so it is kept apart; the speaker and addressee are literary figures.