Untitled ("Let me tell you about us swimming the strem")

By Jack Joseph Smith

Let me tell you about us swimming the strem Fast and slow ones alone way before getting dressed up for church Don't think fear touched us with our hand on the bible After all was said and done We we're Sala mander's from day one I am you and certain that the one I love is going to be murdered Already I can tell in the eye that there are most likely one in millions born without fear Shop keepers, mule skinners, you never know You are born with heven; you are born with hell

Original Scan

Page 45

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker recalls swimming before church, claims fearlessness and expects the person loved to be murdered. The last line pairs birth with heaven and hell.

The speaker's certainty about murder belongs to this account, not a confirmed event. The handwriting extends the last typed line, but its letter case remains uncertain.

Claude

The poem says 'Let me tell you about us swimming the strem', 'We we're Sala mander's / from day one', 'I am you and certain / that the one I love / is going to be murdered', and ends 'You are born with heven; you are born with hell'.

Childhood swimming and church give way to a dread of violence, closed by a paired blessing and curse. The handwritten 'born with hell' continues the last typed row; its final letters may be capitals.