Page 77

By Jack Joseph Smith

I wiped lashed winged, and spit myself out of the city tomb. Going where there was room running on hills high to see the river long named Tom move by the rocks, heaving winter into spring. I went leaving the ring of buzzing and smashing to feel finally my dream of youth born to be raised in the hot tempered town at the heart of steel, that would sting songs into my brain of a past I could not remember forever. I came here to this valley by way of railroad rails, duung ridden steam ships, and fancy ships too, that were clean with mast and jib tacking me along with sea summer wind sailing. I came to this valley by way Carvinals and Circus taverns, with fist fights flinging my spirit first across dirt floor before gates fitted my taste for God; Willing I wondered without hope out of the pleasure of holding on to that naked dream delight- ing devil deals to me about stopping. Now I fight for holding still in casting the law off my back, bore me by the fruits of extravance wine has brought. Immagination of the Indian left me last man on the track bended to a Wounded Knee before the court.

Original Scan

Page 77

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker recalls leaving an oppressive city and reaching an Oregon valley through railroads, ships, carnivals, and taverns. A youthful dream remains troubled by drink, law, and the closing image of a Wounded Knee before the courts.

The repeated arrivals accumulate a travel history without producing a settled refuge. The river and valley offer room, but the final rows return to burden and judgment. The manuscript invokes an Indian and Wounded Knee; those references are part of its language, not independently established accounts of historical events.

Claude

A typed passage: 'I wiped lashed winged, and spit myself out of the / city tomb.', the speaker coming 'to this valley by way of railroad rails, / duung ridden steam ships', and ending 'Immagination of the Indian left me last man / on the track bended to a Wounded Knee before the court.'

The speaker narrates arrival in the valley as an escape from the city, and closes on a legal reckoning tied to Wounded Knee; the claims belong to the speaker.