Peter Fish Highjack's Humor

By Jack Joseph Smith

The flight was nice A shimmering sun And the ladies were good on the aisle Peter Fish gazed over the impressions in the clouds: They had the fragile support of a suburban altar boys rendition of Heaven, while Peter Fish sipped his scotch as a cherub in tweed Peter Fish had just seen the mod haired silk money christ walk Lake Shore Drive on the olive liquid bobs of a thousand martinies Presently the Chicago cards had Peter Fish menuing out lean Beverly Hills tongues: on a Warhol sandwich And shipping the Hollywood Hills sign to where it belongs in Dallas, Texas Bored to the brow with thoughts on the heavy equipment bids... Peter Fish took his mini sound system from his custom suit pocket over his heart "Listen! People of the planes Attention! A report defying Kansas City, Kansas control. A milk white beauty queen has been found praying over Black Hills Indian graves in a language stranger than Omen Latin... Jessy James's real bones have just been arrested in the New York City subways. Jessy's bones were leading a herd of wild horses to a waterhole at Fifth and Fortysecond Street. Jessy's skull wasn't communicating too well, until a plastic surgeon wired in a radio mouth with the assistance of an electronics wizard. Jessy then explained the bulk bag of scientifically shiny blue pills slung over the shoulder blades of his bones... Awhile back Jessy's horses had evidently demanded the pills for continual nourishment the day they had refused to assist Jessy in sticking up an Art Linkletter tourist bus from Hollywood! Asked why he wasn't studying film techniques, Willy Sutton announced that his sudden resurrection had him into dentistry due to the nitro-glycerin capped teeth fad spreading through the Italian banking crowds. Incidently, the weather bureau in Boise, Idaho has just reported an abundance of energy from sea to shining sea. Establishing that the Atlantic and the Pacific are massive, this discovery must be considered dangerous!" (Apprehended for metaphor at the Los Angeles International; Peter Fish realized that he had overlooked forcing the pilot to fuel up forever for Fact City, U.S.A.) Where they would not have a leg to stand on

Original Scan

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AI Interpretation

GPT

A comic hijacking fantasy in which Peter Fish, a scotch-sipping airline passenger, broadcasts a surreal news bulletin about Jesse James's bones in the New York subway, a beauty queen praying over Indian graves, and Willy Sutton's resurrection into dentistry — before being apprehended for metaphor at Los Angeles International.

Claude

Note the source title's own apostrophe, 'Peter Fish Highjack's Humor.' The poem is a mid-flight reverie that curdles into a hijack: Peter Fish sips scotch 'as a cherub,' sees 'the mod haired silk money christ / walk Lake Shore Drive on the olive liquid bobs of a thousand martinies,' then pulls a 'mini sound system' 'from his custom suit pocket over his heart' and seizes the intercom. What he broadcasts is a manic newscast of American myth recombined - 'Jessy James's real bones' arrested in the subway leading 'wild horses to a waterhole at Fifth and Fortysecond Street.' Willy Sutton resurrected 'into dentistry due to the nitro-glycerin capped teeth fad,' a 'milk white beauty queen' praying over 'Black Hills Indian graves' in 'a language stranger than Omen Latin.' The hinge is the bracketed punchline, '(Apprehended for metaphor at the Los Angeles International;' where the only arrestable crime is making the connections out loud, landing at 'Fact City, U.S.A.' 'Where they would not have a leg to stand on.'