Untitled ("Hurting in the middle")

By Jack Joseph Smith

Hurting in the middle Hurting in the mind There are not any rooftops I am in front of the wind In front of the window Waking is my favorite Sun If it has it through the gack and forth of the rain God sees me show my ass I pull up a too tight skirt Alone and good it is To and fro across the wooden floor I know a cowboy gun Dah, long barrel forty four Actually I like Winchesater's over the thresh hold

Original Scan

Page 38

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker describes hurt, wind and rain, paces a wooden floor and names a cowboy gun and Winchesater's.

The speaker brings bodily exposure and firearms into an account of being alone. The page gives no basis for identifying the speaker's gender or the writer's household.

Claude

The poem says 'Hurting in the middle / Hurting in the mind', 'Waking is my favorite Sun', 'God sees me show my ass / I pull up a too tight skirt', and ends 'Actually I like Winchesater's / over the thresh hold'.

Pain, defiance and humor sit together, and the closing preference for a rifle at the threshold reads as self-defense rather than a stated event. 'gack', 'Dah' and 'Winchesater's' are typed forms.