Untitled ("I am going to get food stamps")

By Jack Joseph Smith

I am going to get food stamps And is he worth more dead or alive Keeping the hawks out of the sky That is enough pretended to be chickens At the same painting of black and white and orange at noon the sun has left Find me another holler where the sprice are short I keep my electric cord a secret all the way from a bulb on the railroad So I am alone but I know of where I am It is not all that bad There is Singers spring

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker plans to get food stamps, asks whether a man is worth more dead or alive, and mentions hawks, chickens, a hidden electric cord and Singers spring.

The speaker alternates a need for support with images of animals and light. The hidden cord is a manuscript image, not proof of theft, and holler does not establish a specific region.

Claude

The poem opens 'I am going to get food stamps / And is he worth more dead or alive', asks 'Find me another holler / where the sprice are short', keeps 'my electric cord / a secret', and ends 'It is not all that bad / There is Singers spring'.

Hardship and wry self-reliance sit together, and the closing spring offers a small consolation. 'sprice' is kept as typed.