Page 33

By Jack Joseph Smith

One More Truth It didn't mean a damn when we said it All that space out there for two to do There is no last dance and temptation, will never reach an end Don't go down on those who mistake you All souls see the same when their done Do you fall in the weeds and fire a rifle As you have bent on a wooden floor against (The pardon,) a brass bed asking for forgiveness of our Lord has us make a table, that will not be broken by a fist; It is the only thing anyone should want Ah hugh and the tumbelweed, two dots and a turning line Don't ever let your trouble go away From the first time, something was true

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Violence and forgiveness lead to a wish for a table that no fist can break.

A rifle, wooden floor and brass bed give confession a physical setting. Handwritten pardon, of our Lord, turning and trouble revise that setting and the return to a first true experience. The speaker keeps trouble as a reminder of truth. Separate margin scrawls remain outside the reading.

Claude

'One More Truth' opens with 'It didn't mean a damn when we said it' and the claim that 'There is no last dance and temptation, / will never reach an end'. It pictures someone who may 'fall in the weeds and fire a rifle' and has 'bent on a wooden floor against (The pardon,) / a brass bed asking for forgiveness', turns to a table 'that will not be broken by a fist;' as 'the only thing anyone should want', and ends 'Don't ever let your trouble go away / From the first time, / something was true'.

The page is a heavily revised draft whose handwritten changes (anyone should, turning, trouble, of our) move it toward the retyped version on the next page. It sets violence and confession beside the image of an unbreakable table, turning faith into something built and shared. The close, keeping trouble as proof that something was once true, gives the title its weight.