Page 83

By Jack Joseph Smith

A gray spring day Rain good for the Garden Hard on the Hay The mill boss this morning He thin cracked a smile When he made the poem My night shift was through Steam was up Easy to face off with adue The boiler operator Who brings 7:30 to pop off With air, fire, and water The climax occures on the cat walk When the big bANd saw roars And the carrage man nods acknowledgement I am at the top of the walk on the whistle of begin The Fireman has pulled the cord on the boilers I began It was long ago now at 10:30 P.M. Rolling through my mind is the practice of the night No, it is not right to use the word practice light The creativity of the botilers is now out of sight

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

A night-shift worker watches steam, a saw, and the mill crew in a gray spring morning. The mill boss makes a poem, and the worker considers the creativity of the night's labor after the shift ends.

The three-row groups move from weather to the mill's sounds and the worker's memory. The speaker revises their own choice of the word practice in the final group. The repaired saw name and preserved typing errors keep that account tied to the physical draft.

Claude

A typed poem of three-row groups: 'A gray spring day / Rain good for the Garden / Hard on the Hay', the mill boss who 'thin cracked a smile', the night shift and the boilers, 'When the big bANd saw roars', ending 'The creativity of the botilers is now out of sight'.

The poem treats the mill's routine as a kind of performance, with the boilers as its creative engine; source spellings are kept.