Page 64
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
A heavily canceled handwritten draft headed Prophets retains references to soldiers, whores, drummers, lights, waiters, and a second-class restaurant. Detached surviving phrases concern coats falling back and making up things.
The retained fragments concern performance and public life, but the cancellation marks prevent a settled account of the argument. The page contains no jail-bunk, Roethke, or shotgun narrative; those words came from a different scan. The extent of the crossings and the attachment of the residual phrases remain open.
A heavily cancelled handwritten page headed 'Prophets'. After the struck opening, residual rows include 'Without the soldiers and perfumed / whores round hips to / the tunes drummers know -', 'We are not saved - the waiters are on' and 'over 2nd class restaurant.'
Most of the draft is crossed out, so the surviving rows are fragments rather than a finished poem. The cancellation extent stays provisional, and no meaning is drawn from the struck lines.