Page 142

By Jack Joseph Smith

Molly You are really the first star I ever saw; go tell it if you want Walking past you right after you had been cut; I was huge,, nineteen years old with absolute power, to think to touch me would be dangerous I looked over the side of my arm and remember you looking up at me aside the screen dooor; so little you were, or thought, my toughness,, my kind,, never needs change, for as I saw you then;, I see you know,, equal with the laugh, no fear in the eye...

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Molly" remembers a childhood or early youthful encounter in which the speaker’s imagined toughness is quietly answered by Molly’s fearless gaze.

The first-star image gives Molly a primal place in the speaker's memory, as if she came before every later mythology of love or power. He remembers himself as huge and dangerous, but the poem keeps transferring dignity to her smallness, laughter, and unafraid eye. What survives is not his swagger but her equality.

Claude

Molly: you are really the first star I ever saw. Nineteen years old with absolute power, Molly little and looking up aside the screen door; never needs change.