Page 18

By Jack Joseph Smith

Pluto-Monkey Dear Don Well, you look like you watch out, those great film eyes of yours, but you don't. You had to when you were an athlete, or a long neck bird trapper, or a soldier, or a long line fishermen, or a hobby guy, anth & arc, with a monkey on your shoulder instead of on your back in the desert, or a student of micro bio, Logical Science, or a beachguard, and of course the best reader of Robert Frost on the continent. is not a convezed metophor So staying still and going back. I hope your ok. No more than a year. But let them know your gonna stop. You and the way others have viewed you is a good history. Really now make your life presentable; not all that mixed up of the abstract wish, as the devil in the details of as pregnant, the ego and the id, for lack of a better phrase of bull shit. Love John Write me back.

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

A letter to Don recalls his pursuits and urges him to make his life presentable, stop within a year and write back.

The writer adds anth & arc to Don's roles and puts a monkey on his shoulder rather than his back. Inserted ing endings give staying still and going back. The handwritten is not a convezed metophor and as pregnant fragments remain in physical order, with their insertion points unresolved. The signature also needs follow-up.

Claude

'Pluto-Monkey' is a letter beginning 'Dear Don' that lists the lives Don has had, 'an athlete', 'a long neck bird trapper', 'a soldier', 'a hobby guy, anth & arc,', 'with a monkey on your shoulder instead / of on your back', and 'the best reader of Robert Frost on / the continent'. The writer urges 'So staying still and going back', asks him to 'make your / life presentable', and closes with a signature and 'Write me back.'

The page mixes affection, teasing and advice in a loose, conversational typed letter, heavily reworked by hand. The handwritten turn from a monkey on the back to one on the shoulder recasts a burden as a companion, and the interlinear asides 'is not a convezed metophor' and 'as pregnant,' are kept in their physical order because their insertion points are not marked. The tone is candid and blunt, ending with 'bull shit' and a plain request for a reply.