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By Jack Joseph Smith

Hermann Christ has spoken for you, you and he live He has not thought twice about it All four ways on the cross Abraham was never more than a diagram away from home I did not walk the territory to have the revirbation of your thunder to be gone We did not slight chance when after thirty years we received ourselves as the same The question of In rhyme,, did you ever notice how being better is getting worse

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Christ speaks on all four ways of the cross while Abraham, thunder, territory, and thirty years return Hermann to a sameness where being better is getting worse.

The cross opens outward in four directions, so salvation feels less like a single line than a crossroads. Abraham being only a diagram away from home shrinks sacred history into something sketched, portable, and abstract, while thunder and territory pull the voice back toward lived distance. Thirty years leading to the same self gives the handwritten question its bite: rhyme can make improvement sound elegant even when better is becoming worse.

Claude

'Hermann' two: Christ has spoken for you; Abraham never more than a diagram from home. Thirty years later they received themselves as the same. 'The question / In rhyme, did you ever notice / how [goddamn] better is getting worse.'