By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
A formal dining scene is charged with menace, as old power, marriage, grace, and wine conceal something predatory and barely knowable.
The title promises kings, but the room feels more like a ritual of authority than a feast. Chairs, wives, black eyes, skirts, tables, and wine all carry a ceremonial polish that is repeatedly interrupted by hints of killing, dealing, and survival. The fragment breaks before resolving who these people are, which makes their social grace feel even more suspicious.
'The Restraunt Of Kings' watches diners who, 'Reguardless of age', 'act old taking chairs with their wives', their 'black eyes are long' 'As in a Mass', while 'the outward glance of grace sings... / of the survivor? of the killer? of the dealer?', people no one knew until it was time 'to order the wine'.
The restaurant becomes a church and a court at once, where ritual manners hide who these powerful men really are. The run of three questions refuses to settle whether grace covers survival, violence or commerce, and the final line, 'exactly one second before the observation', suggests the watchers are always a moment too late to see the truth. The misspelled title keeps the vantage point that of an outsider looking in on royalty.