Page 21

By Jack Joseph Smith

Metaphor I never had anything to go bankrupt about I was never material I was always abstract I learned it as young, as you get, playing fogtball Signs and space made reason, quick to dance I have never accepted a suggestion, Not giving a damn ment being aware Think of the sides of shallow, is it you or a stream Think of fool, is it the theatre, or a serious mistake Think again of money as a dream, or think you have it, down right, how closely does you mind change, either way I have physically left life, with my mind; come back to share, physically gone There is always a part missing The subtle and the secret But The heart and the vanity GIVE HE Any lake, and the toss of a smooth stone

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Abstract life is defended against money and material certainty, with metaphor treated as the missing part that keeps experience unfinished.

The poem treats abstraction as the speaker's native condition, learned in youth and tested against suggestions, money, theatre, and physical departure. Its final images of missing parts, secrecy, vanity, lake, and stone keep metaphor active as the thing that moves after certainty is gone; the added But and GIVE HE insertions make the ending feel more interruptive and unresolved.

Claude

Abstraction is defended not as escape from the material but as the missing piece that keeps experience honest. Without metaphor, certainty hardens into possession.