However Careful

By Jack Joseph Smith

"When the storms are fierce and the Tornado comes in Western Pennsylvania We burn our Palm Sunday Palm and toss it out the door" Thus Italian lady spoken In life there is by rule A sequence of events that lead to accidents Therefore little thought is needed to imply implication and blame is ready made To excuse the results of incorrect choices and actions As off the farm the Silo first spins
Then slips through space No one from their mangled place is viewing the clarity now And the prehistoric newness of the birds beaks is filled with their own seed Way up there in the air and way down here on the ground To do you wrong The enemy is around To bring down Hell raisers and Heaven's beginners So like a crow and a cat be careful If you want to keep what is best in your bag of tricks
For hatred is after it and picks up even that which sorrow has left There across the landscape and across the city street She prowls and hunts without rest Only the wilderness cares about what the eye of the needle has let its thrust put through So be careful and true Life can actually see after the last fight You being the one at the end of the list who is not dead yet
And then when your head is young With the sure song you have sung And you know If good and bad isn't rolled into one there will be a problem And when the storms are fierce and the Tornado comes in Western Pennsylvania We burn our Palm Sunday Palm and toss it out the door And you know who said it this time

Original Scan

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AI Interpretation

GPT

A Palm Sunday storm saying frames warnings about accidents, ready-made blame, enemies and hatred, ending with a return to the remembered warning.

The poem asks for care without promising safety. Its survivor is not dead yet, and its final line makes the repeated saying part of the present speaker's knowledge.

Claude

The poem opens with a storm custom, 'We burn our Palm Sunday Palm / and toss it out the door', and argues that 'blame is ready made / To excuse the results'. It follows something past 'their mangled place', pictures hatred as a hunter across landscape and city, urges being careful 'like a crow and a cat', and returns to the Palm Sunday saying before 'And you know who said it this time'.

Folk ritual and moral reasoning sit side by side, and the storm custom frames the poem as remembered counsel handed to a new voice. The acceptance that good and bad are 'rolled into one' sums up its cautious wisdom.