Page 91

By Jack Joseph Smith

Peter Fish Highjack's Humor 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 bid... Peter Fish took his mini sound system from his custom suit pocket over his heart: "Listen! People of the plane. 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 subway. 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 crowd... 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

Page 91

AI Interpretation

GPT

Peter Fish interrupts a flight with a mock news bulletin about resurrected outlaws and American celebrity culture. The speaker reports his arrest for metaphor.

Peter Fish gives Jessy James's bones a radio mouth and sends Willy Sutton into dentistry. Through these inventions, the writer mocks the language of news and commerce. He sets Peter Fish's arrest for metaphor beside his forgotten plan to force the pilot toward "Fact City, U.S.A." and leaves the referent of "they" open in the final line.

Claude

In 'Peter Fish Highjack's Humor' a businessman on a flight, sipping scotch 'as a cherub in tweed', pulls a mini sound system from his suit and broadcasts a mock news bulletin to 'People of the plane' about a praying beauty queen, 'Jessy James's real bones' leading wild horses through the subway, and Willy Sutton's resurrection into dentistry, until he is 'Apprehended for metaphor at the Los Angeles International;'.

The poem stages a hijacking made of words rather than weapons: Peter Fish seizes the plane's attention with a surreal bulletin that scrambles Western outlaws, celebrity, advertising, and weather reports into one American fever dream. The comedy has a satirical edge, since the only crime is metaphor and the destination he forgot to force the pilot toward is 'Fact City, U.S.A.', a place where his kind of imagination 'would not have a leg to stand on'.