Page 140

By Jack Joseph Smith

Just Before The Top When he was fixing The highwire he was Underneath it Tighting the clamps Resining down the spudder, Hand holds THE SPIN, AND THE SPOUTING the cord Turning the wheel taut Setting the leaver in the nitch Peripheral viewing for no sag and no bow He was underneath Beneath the top He was the top Two of everything Security and danger at the same time

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The page makes high-wire labor into a study of doubled perception, where the worker's hand holds the spin and spouting while he is both beneath the top and, in another sense, the top itself.

Its power comes from technical concentration. The handwritten insertion around Hand / holds / THE SPIN, AND THE SPOUTING keeps the page visibly in revision, while the typed sequence moves from work procedure into identification: the worker is underneath, then beneath the top, then the top. The poem turns circus rigging into a logic of doubleness, with security and danger present at the same time.

Claude

Just Before The Top, final pass: the full technical litany, he was the top, two of everything, security and danger at the same time.