Untitled ("It is the coal mine, actually, you say")

By Jack Joseph Smith

It is the coal mine, actually, you say give me two wekks just to say I've done it; questions are silly about hard life We in the pural know the answer to death The meaning,, let us talk geology, the old is where we are from When the shafts blew up and blew down My greatgrand parents said oh well Civil war, Mexican ar First world war Everybody her still remembers them well We started judging ourselves a long time ago The tempting is in a flower

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker discusses coal mining, geology and death, recalls greatgrand parents answering shaft explosions with oh well, and lists wars that people still remember. The speaker says they began judging themselves long ago and ends with The tempting is in a flower.

The speaker joins mining danger to family memory and collective judgment. The unexplained closing flower leaves temptation in view without identifying a particular incident, mine or community.

Claude

The poem begins 'It is the coal mine, actually, you say', says 'We in the pural know the answer to death', remembers 'When the shafts blew up / and blew down', lists 'Civil war, Mexican ar / First world war', and ends 'The tempting is in a flower'.

Disaster is told in the flat tone of family memory, and the list of wars is what the speaker says people remember rather than a history. 'wekks', 'pural', 'Mexican ar' and 'Everybody her' are typed forms.